Seal
by GuyYouMetOnline
Summary: The legendary beast Ho-oh appears before Laresa, a Pokemon Trainer with a questionable grip on sanity, and leaves her with an object capable of calling the great bird. What does Ho-oh want with her, and why? Or is any of it even real?
1. Chapter 1: Maybe I am crazy

**Chapter 1**  
_Maybe I am crazy_

Laresa pushed herself off the ground and got to her feet. _Okay, what the hell is this?_

She took a look around, or tried to, at least. It was pitch black; she couldn't see a thing. _Okay, girl,_ she thought, _think. You were just walking through the woods, and the next thing you know, you're on the ground in the dark. So what happened?_

Her first thought was that she'd passed out for some reason and it was now night. _No, that's not it. Or not all of it, at least. There's no way I'm in Ilex Forest any more, or in any forest, for that matter. Ground feels completely barren. A lot flatter, too, and few loose rocks or anything. Too smooth to be natural, but it's definitely dirt, and_-she gave herself a mental shake-_Okay, not what you need to focus on right now. Check yourself first, then check your suroundings._

In the darkness, Laresa couldn't examine herself visually, but she felt all over herself. _Okay, no injuries, as far as I can tell. And I've still got my pack, so_-she gave herself a mental slap-_Okay, girl, you're not thinking clearly. You've got your pack. There's a flashlight in there. So get it out._

She put her pack on the ground and knelt down in front of it. She managed to locate the zipper and open it, and rummaged through the contents by feel until she found the flashlight. It took her another couple seconds of fumbling to turn it on.

_Okay, good. You've got some light now._ She first turned the light on herself. _Okay, no signs of injury or anything. And I feel fine, too._ Laresa zipped up the pack and put it back on, and got back to her feet. Using the flashlight, she took another look around.

She was in some sort of cave, it seemed. A big one, too. And not a natural one. The ground, the celing, the walls, everything was far too smooth to be natural. _Someone made this cave. But who? And why? And why am I here?_ And then she noticed something else: there was no entrance. No way in or out. _What the hell? How did-okay, girl, stay calm. You obviously got in here somehow. That means you can get out the same way. So stay calm and find the way out. Start by doing another sweep of the walls. Maybe you missed something._

She was looking over the walls when something caught her eye. there was... something, some strange object, on the ground near one of the walls. She walked over and picked it up to take a closer look at it.

At the center of the object was what appeared to be some kind of jewel. There were arms extending outward from the jewel, but they were strange. They got wider in the middle, like... _Like an unfolded sphere._ And sure enough, the object folded up into a sphere. And as a sphere, something else became apparent. The arms had been colored black and red, the two colors alternating seemingly at random. But that was simply an artifact of the unfolded object. Seen on the folded sphere, the coloring was clearly anything but random; it formed a design of some kind, a red symbol on black. It consisted of two parts joined together at the point directly opposite the jewel. One part was a small circle with a starburst design within it. The other was a large circle, inside which were multiple smaller, interlocking circles.

Laresa turned the object around in her hand, thinking. The object was black with a jewel, and it had a red design on it, the two parts of the design joining at the point opposite the jewel. The object's size was- _Shit, it's the size of a Pokeball. How did I not notice that until now?_ She turned the object over again and looked at the jewel. _Okay, so Pokeballs have a button to open them. This jewel is the closest this thing has to that. So..._ she pressed down on the jewel. She could feel it depress as a button would, and it popped back up when she took her finger off it, but nothing happened.

_All right, girl, think. It's the size of a Pokeball. Is that just a coincidence? Or..._ Laresa took a Pokeball out of her pack. _Hmm... wait, does it maybe fit over the ball? Then..._ she examined the object again, looking for a way to unfold it. The arms met directly opposite the jewel; that would be the place to start. But the arms melded together smoothly; there was no room to get in and pry one open. And then she caught a glimpse of something. A small protrusion opposite the jewel, presumably something on one of the arms that she hadn't noticed. She hooked a fingernail on it and pulled. Sure enough, the arm moved. In fact, every arm unfolded simultaniously. _Okay, so that's how you open the thing. Now, let's see here. All right, the only thing on this object that's even close to a button is the jewel. So..._

Laresa positioned the jewel on the Pokeball's button, then folded the arms down around the ball. It was, indeed, a perfect fit. _Okay, so maybe it does go over a ball, but now what? Maybe..._ She gave the jewel another press. And it lit up with a red light.

_Okay, now it's got a light in the jewel. Yeah, nothing abnormal about that. Okay, so it lights up somehow. But why? And why didn't it light up before? Hmm... well, it wasn't over the ball then; does that have something to do with it? But how would the ball affect-_ Without warning, the jewel flashed brightly. Extremely brightly, the sudden flash of red light causing Laresa to jump in surprise. "Gah!" She dropped both the object and the flashlight she'd still been holding in her other hand. She waited for the flash to fade from her eyes, then bent over to pick up the dropped items. She grabbed the strange object and was reaching for the flashlight when there was another flash. But this one wasn't from the jewel. It came from behind. And the light didn't vanish entirely; there was some kind of glow eminating from behind. Laresa picked up the flashlight and turned around. And then dropped both object and flashlight as she stared in shock at what was before her. There was no mistaking the beast before her eyes. The Sacred Bird, the Soaring Flame, the Flame of Life, and many other titles. A creature straight out of myth. The legendary beast Ho-oh.

* * *

There was no telling how long Laresa simply stood there staring. The Sacred Flame seemed patient, but eventually it gestured downwards with its beak. Laresa managed to tear her gaze away from it long enough to look down, and noticed the strange object. The red symbol on it was glowing, glowing the same color as Ho-oh's light. She grabbed it and held it out towards Ho-oh. Eventually, she managed to find her voice. "Is this... yours?" Ho-oh made no response.

Despite being once again focused on Ho-oh, Laresa noticed a blinking. She again tore her eyes from Ho-oh and looked at the object. The jewel was now blinking. Laresa looked at it, then looked back up at Ho-oh. _You want something from me, don't you? You're waiting for me to do something. But if you don't want the object, then... the jewel?_

Laresa turned the object, pointing the jewel towards Ho-oh. The great bird gave a cry, and the object-Laresa almost dropped it a third time-the jewel emitted a ray of red light towards Ho-oh. And then something else happened. There was some sort of... something. Laresa didn't know what it was, but the jewel had stopped blinking. It was a solid light again, and the light had intensified. And then there was another bright flash. And then nothing. Laresa was again alone in the cave. Ho-oh was gone, and the only light in the cave was once again that of Laresa's flashlight, still lying on the ground.

Laresa looked again at the object as she picked up the flashlight, and noticed a change. The jewel, formerly clear, now had a definite red tint, and the object now bore, in addition to the strange symbol, a new starburst pattern with the jewel at its center. One of its longest rays just barely touched the nearest point of the large circle of the red symbol.

Laresa pressed the jewel again. There was no red glow this time, just a flash-and then Ho-oh was before her once more. She stared at the object in wonder. _Is this... do I have..._ She pressed the jewel again. It flashed and Ho-oh was gone. Again she pressed it, and again Ho-oh appeared with a flash. Again, and Ho-oh was gone. Again, and Ho-oh was back. Again, and it was gone. Again, and it returned. Again, gone. Again, returned.

Ho-oh let out an odd sound. _Is that-is it laughing?_ And then the realization hit. _Of course it is. I'm just standing here pushing the jewel again and again like an idiot. Of course Ho-oh thinks it's funny._ "Okay, okay," she said, "I'll stop playing around. What exactly do you want me to do?" As if in response, the jewel flashed again. "You want me to press it again?" Ho-oh nodded. "Um... okay." She pressed the jewel again, and Ho-oh vanished.

Laresa stared at the object in her hand. _Okay, just what the hell is this thing? Is it calling Ho-oh somehow? Or did it-_ She unfolded the object and removed it from the Pokeball, then pressed the button on the ball. The ball poped open, revealing itself to be empty. _Okay, so that's not it._ She pressed the jewel again, and nothing happened. _All right, so does it need the Pokeball for something?_ She folded the object around the ball again, and pressed the jewel. This time, Ho-oh did appear. "Yeah, so I'm still trying to figure this thing out," Laresa said. "Just be patient, okay? This thing doesn't exactly come with detailed instructions." She pressed the jewel again, and Ho-oh vanished once more.

Laresa stared at the object again for a while, then once again gave herself a mental shake. _Dammit, girl, come on. You can mess with this thing later. First, find a way out of here._

Laresa took a step forward and stumbled, feeling dizzy all of a sudden. Lacking anything to brace herself on, she eventually just fell over, and-

-And she was in a forest. Flat on her belly. The dizzyness faded, and she got to her feet. _Am I back- no, this is not Ilex. Some forest, but definitely not Ilex. And do I still have..._ she looked around, quickly finding both the strange object and her flashlight. She turned the flashlight off and returned it to her pack, then picked up the object. _Okay, so I still have this thing. Does it still..._ She pressed the jewel. The flash was a lot less stunning outside of the darkness of the cave, but the flash did happen, and as before, Ho-oh appeared before her. "Yeah, so I'm still experimenting with this thing," she said, and pressed the jewel again. As before, Ho-oh vanished.

_Okay, so have I totally lost it, or is this shit all real? This... thing, Ho-oh-and what the hell is this thing, anyways? I-_Once more, Laresa gave herself a mental shake-_Okay, girl, you can think about this __thing later. Priority number one is finding out where you are._

Laresa moved to put the object in her pack, but then stopped. _No, better idea. I'll just say it's a Pokeball with a custom plate. Much simpler than hiding it. Besides, maybe someone'll recognize this symbol; it may very well be something out of one of the legends of Ho-oh. Damn, I'm really wishing I knew more about those legends right-dammit, girl, focus._

Laresa clipped the object onto her belt, next to the Pokeballs of her regular team of six. _There. Good thing I got the beld with the extra clips; I can keep the object out this way. People'll see it. And hopefully someone'll know something about what it is. Have to plan how to handle it, though; if this is all real, I don't think I want people knowing I've got something like this. I can work that out while I move, though. Okay, now where the hell am I?_

Laresa opened her pack again and reached in. _Man, I hope nothing in here's broken or anything. Or missing. It may have seemed to me like I was instantly moved from ilex to that cave, and then to here, but who knows what really happened? I'll need to take inventory at some point soon. But for now... ah, there it is._

Laresa removed a small photo album from her pack and opened it up. _Okay, I'm clearly in some forest, so..._ she flipped through the album until she came to a series of pages filled with pictures of forests. Each page had a lable, the name of the place the images on it were from. None of the photos in the album were hers; she'd gotten them from friends, magazines, etc. Most had actualy come from her older sister, a trainer for whom photography happened to be a hobby. The purpose of all the photos was for a situation exactly like the one she now found herself in. By comparing her surroundings to the photos, she could at least get a pretty good idea of where she was. _And people thought I was nuts to think I'd need something like this. Heh, maybe they're right. But if so, I'm sure glad for it right now._

Laresa examined each page's photos, comparing them to the area around her. _Okay, not Viridian Forest. Skip Ilex-I already know I'm not there. Okay, next page. Let's see... okay, definite similarities here._ She checked each picture carefully, comparing it to what she could see around her. _Okay, this looks like it. So it looks like I'm in..._ she checked the page's label, _Eterna Forest. Wait, what? How the hell'd I end up in Sinnoh? I can't really be-damn it, I must be going crazy._

Eventually, Laresa returned the photo album to her pack. _Okay, so I have this crazy object that apparently calls Ho-oh, and now I'm somehow all the way over in Sinnoh. Well, maybe I am crazy. Wouldn't surprise me, not after-okay, girl, don't go there. Don't think about it, do not think about it. Focus on something else. Okay. Okay. You're in Eterna Forest. Focus on that, focus on getting out of here. Okay, so Eterna Forest._ She reached into her pack again and removed a map book, which she opened to the general Sinnoh region map. _All right, there's Eterna City to the east, and Floaroma to the south. But which is closer... you know what, no, I don't care. A big city's not the place I want to be right now. Floaroma it is, then._

Laresa returned the map book to her pack, then reached into her left pocket and removed a compass, which she used to orient herself. _Okay, so south until I get out of the forest, then Floaroma's to the south and just a bit west. All right, then. time to get moving._

Laresa took another look at the object on her belt, then started off towards Floaroma.


	2. Chapter 2: Something to focus on

**Author's Note: **Beginning with this chapter, this story will contain references to legal proceedings. The legal system being referenced is not intended to resemble any real-life legal system, so please do not pester me with messages telling me I got something wrong. Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

_Something to focus on_

Laresa stepped into the Floaroma Pokemon Center and-

-And everything was upside down. _What the-_ She stumbled and fell, and-

-And everything was normal again. _What the hell was that_?

The nurse ran out from behind the counter. "Are you okay?"

"I-I think so," Laresa said as the nurse helped her to her feet. "I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. It was like... well, like the world was upside down for a moment. I know that sounds crazy, but... oh, hell, maybe I'm just tired."

"It doesn't sound that crazy, really," the nurse said as she walked back behind the counter and laresa walked up to it. "Certainly not as crazy-sounding as the relocations."

"Relocations?"

"Yeah," the nurse said. "People suddenly finding themselves somewhere else. Like, say, you're walking through the forest, and then all of a sudden you're on the beach. I didn't think there was any truth to it at first, but it's been happening more and more."

"People just... suddenly end up somewhere different? Like, instantaneously?"

"Yeah. Standard?"

Laresa nodded as she removed her six Pokeballs from her belt and handed them to the nurse. "Nobody has any sort of decent explanation for it," she continued as she took the balls. "One instant you're in one place, and the next you're somewhere completely different. Apparently, people've even been relocated across regions."

_Is she serious? People are really just ending up somewhere else? Well, let's try this, then. _"Like, say, Johto to Sinnoh?"

The nurse nodded. "Yeah, Johto to Sinnoh, Kanto to Hoenn, Orre to Johto, etcetera."

"So if I told you I'd been in Ilex Forest in Johto, and then suddenly I found myself in Eterna Forest, you

wouldn't think I was crazy?"

"You were-"

"Yes." _Okay, just leave out the part about the cave and Ho-oh. Doesn't sound like that's a normal part of relocation. Assuming it even happened at all; even if relocation is real, I may have imagined that part. _"I was starting to wonder if I'd completely lost it."

"It's real," the nurse said. "Or at least there are enough reports to make me believe it. Anyways, let me get your Pokemon taken care-oh, hello, sir."

Laresa turned around to see the door close behind a young man who'd just entered the Center. He handed his six Pokeballs to the nurse. "Here. My crew needs the standard treatment."

"Please show me your trainer card, then. You, too, ma'am." Laresa and the newcommer presented their cards. The nurse took them, swiped them through a car scanner, and handed them back. "All right," the nurse said, "that part's taken care of. Your Pokemon, please." the two trainers handed their balls to the nurse, who took them into the back.

The newcomer turned to Laresa. "Hi, there. I'm Mathis."

"Laresa."

"Well, nice to meet you, Laresa."

Laresa gave no reply. _All right, this seems like a good time to take inventory. _She walked over to the wall, set her pack down on the ground, and sat down in front of it. She first opened up the medicine pouch. _Okay, exactly the amounts I remember. Good. Don't need to restock; I haven't used shit since the-since I left Goldenrod. All right, now for the main load._

She closed the medicine pouch and opened the main pouch, making note of each item as she took them out of the pack one-by-one. _The photo album, of course. The map book. The flashlight. All on the top because I just used them. Okay, then. Moving on. Backup flashlight. Extra batteries. Backup extra batteries. Roll of duct tape. Roll of regular tape. Roll of packing tape. Twine. Padlock. Second padlock. Copper wire. Wire cutter. Third padlock. Air horn. Pad of paper. Pack of pens. Reference books on the plant life of all major regions. Second pad of paper. Flares. Reference book on major religions. Translation guides for all major forms of ancient text. Battery-powered handheld vacuum._

"Do you actually have a use for that?"

Laresa looked up to see Mathis. "You never know what you might need," she said.

"Yeah, but I'd expect you haven't had a use for that."

"So?" Laresa went back to work. _Okay, general reference on the various myths and legends of the world-I don't think it has anything on the object or any of this shit, but it's probably worth looking through at some point. Fire extinguisher. Megaphone. Bowling ball._

"Okay, what?" Mathis said. "You keep a bowling ball with you?"

"Why not? You never know what you might need." _Rope. More rope. More flares. History texts __covering all major regions. Magnifying glass. Binoculars. Backup compass. Deck of cards. Bag of marbles. Ping-pong balls. Umbrella. _She continued going through item-by-item until the pouch was completely empty. _Okay, that's everything in this pouch. It's all there, too. Good. Okay, time to load it all back up._

"You know," Mathis said as Laresa re-packed her pack, "even now, I still find it weird seeing so much stuff come out of a single bag."

"I've never understood why people think it's weird at all," Laresa said, "especially trainers. Most trainers never think twice about being able to store even large Pokemon in Pokeballs, but think it's strange to see the same technology in use elsewhere. Doesn't make sense."

"Put that way, I'd have to agree with you. Hell, the compression's less efficient in the bags than in the balls. Not sure why that is, though."

"Well," Laresa said, "I've heard that compressing inanimate objects is actually more difficult, contrary to what one might expect. Don't know why, though."

'Well, yeah, of course not. Hell, I'd bet that even the guys who make the tech don't know why."

Laresa finished repacking and zipped up the pouch. She then opened a third pouch. _Okay, quick-access stuff. Not as much in this one. Okay, empty it out. First aid kit. Second first aid kit. Third first aid kit. Several uses' worth of Repel spray. More Repel spray. Potions for quick access if needed. That just leaves the-okay, leave that in there, there's a reason it's in there. You don't want to see it, don't want to remember-okay, don't go there. Think about something else. Think about something else. Focus on the inventory. You've still got another pouch to check._ She repacked the pouch and zipped it up, then opened the last pouch. _Okay, basic supplies. Food, water, etc._ She went through the pouch and, satisfied that everything was there, closed it up again.

"After seeing how much stuff you've got in there," Mathis said, "it seems hard to believe the compression's any less efficient than it is in Pokeballs."

"There's a larger difference in area pre- to post-compression, yes, but remember, the bag's a lot bigger than a Pokeball to start with. The compression ratio is definitely less than a Pokeball's, and by quite a bit, too. So the bag has less efficient compression, but more area to compress into. I've always found it pretty obvious."

"When you put it that way, yeah, it does seem obvious."

At that moment, the nurse walked up to the two of them. "Finished," she said, handing the two trainers their balls. "Here you go."

"Thanks," Mathis said as he and Laresa returned the balls to their belts.

It was at that moment that it hit Laresa. _Of course it needs a Pokeball to work. It's using the ball's power supply!_ Pokeballs had special batteries installed to power them. The batteries could last for over a month on a single charge, and recharging them, as well as replacing any with detected problems, was part of the standard service at any Pokemon center. Unused balls didn't need their batteries recharged, obviously, as they didn't consume power prior to use. _I doubt the object uses too much power; it would __only need power when activated. It probably only consumes power when I press the jewel. I probably don't need to worry about recharging it, although I should probably have it checked at some point. Not here, though. Probably not a good idea to ask for an unusual service for a ball with a strange object on it after being relocated here from Ilex. That'd look odd, even if I do say the object is just a custom plate I had made. I'll have it checked in the next center._

Laresa was snapped out of thought by a tap on the shoulder. "Miss?" the nurse said.

"Sorry," Laresa said. "Lost in thought. Did you want something?"

"I was asking if you planned to stay here tonight. It'll be dark in an hour or so."

" Is it really that late?"

The nurse nodded. "Yes Would you like to spend the night here?"

_Did I lose track of time that much, or was there-wait, I'm being stupid. I was in johto, and now I'm in Sinnoh. Of course it's later than I thought. I'll stop here for today, though. I haven't gotten much sleep since- okay, stop thinking about it, dammit. Okay, staying here tonight. Yes. I'll do that. _"Sure," Laresa said.

"In that case, let me go get you a room. What about you, sir?"

"No thanks," Mathis said. "My sister lives here; I plan to spend the night at her place."

"All right, then."

Mathis turned to Laresa as the nurse walked off. "Another thing that still seems odd to me," he said, "is getting all these services for free."

"I don't see why that's odd," Laresa said. "It's all run by the League, the only multi-regional government group there is."

"Yeah, but why would they bother in the first place?"

"Well, for one, have you ever thought about how much money they bring in? Even with all the provided services, the Leauge doesn't need outside funding; it actually makes a sizable profit. The regional tournaments are especially big moneymakers, and the big worldwide tournament, well, I'd imagine that one makes a hell of a lot. And since the League is a multi-government group, profits go to the various member governments, divided on a per-capita basis. And no government is going to go against a source of money. And there's the regulation issue, too, of course."

"Yeah, I can see why governments would cooperate on something like that. Although I do find it surprising how few people attempt to go without registering. I guess the penalty for being an unregistered Trainer is harsh."

"There's an understatement for you. If you're caught as an unregistered Trainer, you spent the rest of your life in prison. There's no nonsense with that kind of thing."

"Automatic life in prison? Seriously?"

"Um, yeah," Laresa said. "This shouldn't be coming as a surprise. You're a trainer; you should know exactly how dangerous Pokemon can be. You just can't blame the League for being so strict about regulations. Which is the other purpose of services such as Pokemon Centers. If they have direct control over such services, they can control exactly what's being provided to trainers. And it lets them keep track of trainers, too."

"Really?"

"This stuff is common knowledge. Since you don't know it, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you've led somewhat of a sheltered life. And that you haven't been a trainer for very long."

"Well, I've only been traveling for a couple months, but I've been battling longer than that. My father gave me my first couple Pokemon about a year ago, caught them just for that purpose. I couldn't be an actual trainer until I turned sixteen, of course; I do know that you have to be legally an adult before you can actually become a trainer. But there's nothing preventing a kid from having a couple as long as all the 'minors with Pokemon' rules are followed."

"So, what, you fought against wild Pokemon in the woods? Maybe had some battles against trainers passing through the area?"

Mathis nodded. "Basically, yes."

"You know, that hardly prepares you for the real thing."

"I've been doing just fine so far. Even got myself a Gym badge in Oreburgh."

"Um... you do realize that's the easiest Gym in the region, right? And if that was your first badge, they didn't scale up the challenge for you, either. You are aware that the strength of your opponents in Gym battles is chosen based on the number of badges you currently have, right?"

"Um, no," Mathis said, "I've never heard that."

"Yeah, um, just give it some time. I think you'll soon realize that being a real trainer is nothing like what you're used to."

"So what, are you saying I'm not any good at being a trainer?"

Laresa shook her head. "Not at all. I simply know that you're inexperienced. I've been traveling as a trainer for a little over three years now-like you, I started at sixteen. Trust me, you have no idea what it's really like to be a trainer."

"I'm better than you seem to think."

The implied challenge was clear. "Oh, are you?"

'Yeah, and I can prove it, too."

"I'll take that challenge," Laresa said. _Okay, yes, very good. Something to focus on. Good. Keep the... keep those thought sealed away. Do not think about-damn it, girl, stop thinking about that! Okay. Okay, battle. Yes. All right, then._

The nurse walked back out. "You're room's all set," she said. "I assume you know the drill; swipe your card through the reader. You're in room 2."

"Thanks," Laresa said, then turned back to Mathis. "Okay, then. If you want a match, you've got one. Let's step outside and get started."

* * *

"All right, then," Laresa said, "we're agreed on single battle, standard rules, free match." 'Free match' meant that the match was not officially logged, meaning it wasn't registered on either trainer's card. The only real effect this had was that the battle affected neither trainer's credit, which was for use purchasing items and gear at marts and other League retail outlets; a trainer's starting credit was based on the chosen registration package-more expensive packages came with more base credit, and there was also a cash-credit exchange system in place.

"Do you have a full team of six?" Laresa asked.

"Yes," Mathis replied. "I've got a full team."

"All right, then. Let's do this." Laresa grabbed a Pokeball from her belt and released the Pokemon inside. "Okay, Sceptile, you're first."

Mathis sent out his first choice, a Zubat. "Let's do it, Zubat! Leech it!"

"Give it to them, Sceptile!"

Sceptile dodged Zubat's diving attack and spun around to face her opponent. Zubat circled around and dove at Sceptile again. She moved to dodge, but stumbled, giving Zubat a chance. Zubat swooped over Sceptile's head and latched onto her back.

"Not a bad location," Laresa said. 'Sceptile, do it!" Sceptile dropped backwards, forcing Zubat to detach. It tried to fly away, but Sceptile made a well-timed move and grabbed it. Slamming it into the ground. The dazed Zubat tried to fly away again, but Sceptile repeated the grab and slam, and Zubat went down.

"Your inexperience shows," Laresa said as Mathis recalled Zubat. "First tip: type advantages only mean so much. And second tip: in most cases, leeching doesn't work very well, as it leaves the Pokemon open for counterattack." _Okay, yes, leave out the fact that Sceptile's 'stumble' was deliberate. Save that for later._

Mathis' only reply was to send out his next Pokemon, a Pikachu. "Ah, yes," Laresa said. "Pikachu. A common pick for new trainers. The usual, Sceptile!"

Sceptile acted quickly, spraying leaves at Pikachu-the so-called 'Razor Leaf' technique. Laresa rarely used the common names such as that; everyone knew what they were, so an opponent would know what was coming. _Of course, that can have its advantages._

Picachu moved quickly, dodging Sceptile's attack. 'Good job!" Mathis said. "Now give it a Quick Attack!"

"Sceptile, the Leaf Blade!"

"Avoid it! Dash and attack from behind!"

Pikachu did just that. Or attempted to. It got blasted with another Razor Leaf as it tried to dash around Sceptile, knocking it to the ground. Sceptile followed up with the 'Energy Ball' move, finishing it off.

"Third tip," Laresa said. "Third tip: don't use move names. Everybody knows them, so using them tells your opponent exactly what you're going to do. Unless, of course, you use them for misdirection like I just did. In fact, once you reach a more advanced level, you'll find that nobody used move names unless they're playing mind games. All right, I think it's time to change things up a bit." She recalled Sceptile and sent out her next choice. "Okay, Absol, your turn."

"Do it, Hitmontop!" Mathis called out as he released his next Pokemon.

"Ah, going for the type matchup, I see. Okay, Absol, straight charge! Take it down!"

Take it head-on, Hitmontop! Hit it hard!"

The two Pokemon charged each other, getting closer and closer. Laresa timed it carefully. At what she judged to be the optimal moment, she called out, "Now!"

"Follow sideways and spin!" Mathis ordered, clearly having anticipated the move. Except that he got it wrong. Absol moved to his left, and Hitmontop, following orders, moved to intercept. Except that Absol had faked it; he ran aside Hitmontop, spun, and delivered a strong kick with his rear legs. But...

"Up and spin!" Mathis shouted. Hitmontop lept over Absol, avoiding the kick, and connected with a multi-spin-kick as it hit the ground. But it wasn't enough to make a difference; Absol took the hits as he spun around and gave another rear kick, this time connecting. He spun back around and charged, slamming into the dazed Hitmontop, following it up with a series of slashes that took it down.

"Some quick thinking there," Laresa said as Mathis recalled Hitmontop. "I like that. Not bad at all, even if you did fall for my little trick. Which brings me to tip number four: don't go by the oldest tricks in the book, because everyone knows those, too. Like move names, those are only used to play mind games. Like what I just did; Absol and I knew what conclusion you'd draw, and acted with that in mind. Which leads to tip number five: if your opponent has certain expectations, use them to your advantage. Although you improvised quite nicely. In fact, if our Pokemon were more evenly matched, you'd most likely have won that round. But Absol's a lot tougher than your Hitmontop; that's what let him take those hits so easily."

"Damn it," Mathis said, "you're making me look like I suck at this."

"No, you just lack experience, as I've been saying. You've got potential; you've just got to put in the time. There's no shortcut to being a skilled trainer; it takes time and effort. You seem to be putting out the effort, so that's not an issue. Just keep it up, and I think you'll do just fine. Anyways, who've you got next?"

"Nobody," Mathis said. "There's no reason to continue this. You win."

"Oh? You're giving up?"

"Not really. You can expect a rematch the next time we meet. And you can expect me to do better next time, too."

"I see. Well, in that case, I look forward to it."

"I think I do, too," Mathis said. He walked past Laresa and reentered the Pokemon Center. Laresa turned to follow him, but stopped as a man walked up to her.

"You're pretty good," the man said. "I saw the match. You seem to know what you're doing."

"Yeah, but keep in mind that my opponent had only been a Trainer for a couple months."

The man nodded. "true, true. Still, I could tell you're quite good."

"I like to think so. Should I assume you want a match?"

"Unfortunately, I don't really have much time. I'm here to get my Pokemon treated, then I really do need to be on my way." He stepped past Laresa, then paused and turned around. "That's an interesting ball you have there," he said.

Laresa turned to face the man. She grabbed the object from her belt. "This? Yeah, it's a custom plate."

"As I'd assumed. Does the design mean anything?"

"It has... personal significance," Laresa replied, timing the pause just right to make it sound like the thought about how to put it, when in fact she'd planned out what she'd say ahead of time. "I think the symbol does have some meaning of its own, though. I think it's probably something out of some old legend. Actually, the reason I have this ball on my belt despite not having used it yet is in the hope that someone would see it and recognize the symbol."

"I see. Well, I don't know what it means, but if you think it's from an old legend, you should try the library in Canalave. They've got an extensive collection of that sort of thing."

"I may do that," Laresa said. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," the man said. He sturned around and entered the Pokemon Center.

Laresa watched him go. _Canalave, huh? Well, I guess it's worth a shot. I'm still staying here tonight, though._ She entered the Center herself, and... _What the hell?_ The man she'd just spoken to was nowhere in sight. Mathis was, though, and he walked over to her. "You all right?"

"I... I thought I saw someone else come in here," Laresa said. "Must have been my imagination, I guess." _Okay, not normal. Shit, I've got to be losing it._

"What's that?" Mathis asked, pointing to the object, which Laresa still had in her hand.

"It's a Pokeball. I just have a custom plate on it."

"Yeah, I think I assumed that? Does that symbol mean anything?"

_Okay, I'm getting some serious deja vu here. _"It's got personal significance," she said. 'I think it's something out of some old legend, but I don't know what it means. That's actually why I keep it on my belt even though I haven't used it yet," she continued as she returned it to her belt. "I'm hoping someone'll recognize it."

"I see. Well, I don't know what it means, but if you think it's from an old legend, you should try the library in Canalave. They've got an extensive collection of that sort of thing."

_All right, this is getting weird. _"I may do that," Laresa said. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Mathis said. The nurse emerged from the back and handed Mathis his three Pokeballs back. "There you go."

"Thanks," Mathis said. "Bye, Laresa." He left the center.

Laresa handed Sceptile and Absol's balls to the nurse on automatic, as her mind was elsewhere. _Okay, um, what the hell just happened?_


	3. Chapter 3: Don't think about it

**Chapter 3**

_Don't think about it_

_Goldenrod at night. Laresa walked through the empty streets, heading for the Pokemon Center. It was late, but Pokemon Centers were always open. Laresa had only just arrived in Goldenrod; she usually stopped earlier and set up camp for the night, but she'd been close enough to Goldenrod that she'd decided to press on._

_The man lunged out just as Laresa passed the alley way he'd been concealed in. He grabbed Laresa and pulled her into the alley, shoving her against a wall. Before she could let out a cry, the man had a scarf wrapped around her head, covering her mouth. He held Laresa against the wall with one hand while unbuckling her belt with the other. He yanked the belt away and tossed it aside, putting Laresa's Pokemon beyond her reach._

_Laresa resisted, but the man slammed her back against the wall with both hands. "I wouldn't struggle if I were you. You're not getting away, so it'll only make things worse for you." Laresa struggled against the man anyways, which he responded to by slamming her into the wall again. "I told you not to struggle. Jesus, you women are all dumb shits. All I want is a little fun, then I'll let you go. Shit, you'd think you bitches would enjoy it just as much as I do."_

_The man let go with one hand and pulled his pants down, then took Laresa's shorts and pulled them down around her legs. He put both hands on Laresa again, and came closer, and closer, and-_

Laresa awoke with a cry and shot backwards, banging her head against the wall. "Gah, fuck!" She leaped out of bed automatically, then stopped. _Calm down, damn it! You were just dreaming. You were just dreaming. It was a dream. It was a dream. It was just a dream. It was-_ She sank down to a sitting position on the floor. Yes, tonight had been a dream, but before that- before that- _God damn it, girl, don't go there! Okay, have to find something else. Have to think about- about something. About- the object, yes. The object, Ho-oh, all that shit. Focus on that. Focus on that. Okay._

Laresa stood and grabbed her belt from the bedside table. She detached the object and set the belt down again. _Okay, the object. Good. All right, so what do I know about this thing? Not much. It calls Ho-oh, and it only works when placed over a Pokeball, most likely because it uses the ball's power supply. The object can be folded and unfolded. It has a symbol on it. And a jewel, which is at the center of the object when unfolded. And the jewel gained a red color after Ho-oh's first appearance. And-wait, there was something else that first time, too. That... reaction or whatever it was when I pointed the jewel at Ho-oh. Hell, the entire incident there when I found the thing. It... Ho-oh did something to it. Is that what lets it-no, Ho-oh appeared the first time after I pressed the jewel. Hmm... damn, I just don't know enough. Okay, so information. Mathis and- shit, I must have imagined that other guy. They both-or Mathis and... would it be my own mind, then? Yeah, maybe. Canalave certainly is the right idea, I think. Okay, then. If I want to figure this thing out, Canalave's probably the best bet._

* * *

Laresa walked through the woods south of Floaroma en route to Jubilife, from which she would go east to Canalave. It was still dark out, but that was to be expected, as it was still early in the morning. Laresa knew she wasn't going to get back to sleep, and just laying there wouldn't have been a good idea. She needed to focus on something else, anything else, so she'd started on the trip to Canalave. If she'd remained, she would have just lay awake, trying to keep herself from thinking about-_God damn __it, don't go there. Don't let yourself think about that. Don't-wait, what was that?_

Laresa quickly pulled her flashlight out of her pack, turned it on, and aimed it in the direction of the noise she'd just heard. Then she heard another noise. And another. And another. _So there's a lot of them. Great. Better be ready for a fight._ She began releasing her Pokemon team, starting with Sceptile and Espeon. Soon, the full team was out: Sceptile, Espeon, Absol, Tyranitar, Luxray, and Nidoking. She barely had time to get the last two out before the assumed enemy came into view, and- _What the hell?_

Laresa didn't exactly have Pokemon habitats memorized-she, like most trainers, relied on her Pokedex for that information-but she was fairly certain a lot of these weren't native to the area. And there was certainly an unusual level of aggressiveness on display. Some sort of fight was going on, that was for sure, and Laresa could hear more sounds of conflict. _The whole thing's coming this way. Great._

Laresa and her team did not get left out of the battle. The minute they were sighted, they were attacked. "Defensive mode!" Laresa ordered. "We're not out for blood here! Form around me and fight only in self-defense!" The team complied immediately. They knew exactly what they were doing; they'd practiced the plan they were now putting into action. Laresa had established plans for a number of situations, and she made sure her team was familiar with every one.

"Okay," Laresa said, "we don't know how far to the sides this stretches, so meet them head on! Move against them and we'll get out of this faster!" As the group began moving, Laresa reached into the item pouch on her pack and removed some Smoke Balls. She'd have preferred to keep the Smoke Balls in the quick-access pouch, but keeping too many items in there would defeat the purpose, namely that anything in it could be gotten at quickly, as there wasn't much to search through. Laresa ended up choosing between putting Smoke Balls and Repels in the quick-access pouch, and she'd found herself going for Repels more often. However, she still wanted Smoke Balls to be easily available, so she kept several at the front of the item pouch, allowing her to just reach in and quickly grab them, as she did now.

Laresa's team moved forwards, with the extremely durable Tyranitar in the lead. Laresa didn't throw down a Smoke Ball yet; at the moment, her team was moving through quite nicely. The Smoke Balls would be used if needed, but not until then. _And they probably won't work well in this situation, anyways. _Right now, her group didn't seem to be drawing any special level of attention; they were just there, given no more attention than any other participant. At first, at least. As the team moved through the fight, more and more of the focus was on them. _Shit, why are we drawing their focus? Is- shit, it's because we're proving ourselves tougher than any of them. So they perceive us as a threat. Shit! We have to fight, but that's drawing attention to us, and at this rate, I doubt we'll last much longer._

Sceptile was the first to go down, after taking a simultaneous flame blast from an Arcanine and a Camerupt. She was more than tough enough to take a few hits from fire-types, especially wild ones, which were generally weaker than the ones trainers had, but she, like the rest of the team, had already taken a lot of damage, and the blasts were too much for her. "Good effort," Laresa said as she recalled Sceptile. "We'll be fine without you." _Although I think we both know we're in trouble with or without your help._

Luxray went down next, followed by Absol. _Shit, not good. Okay, time to try the smokescreen._ Laresa threw down a Smoke Ball, producing a smokescreen for cover while she and the rest of her team ran for it. The problem was that the smokescreen wasn't large enough for this situation; sure, it hid them from the closest attackers, but they couldn't move far before exiting the smokescreen, and when they did, they went right back to being attacked. Sure, she could throw down more as they moved, but that would show where they were by where the smoke appeared. _But maybe this'll work._

Espeon went down. Laresa recalled her, then threw down another Smoke Ball. Then she took another and threw it to the side. She then took another, the last in her hands, and threw it to side, past the other one. As she'd hoped, most of the Pokemon attacking her ran towards the new smoke clouds; Laresa had made it look like she was going that way, and they'd fallen for it. _Good thing this frenzy is crazy enough they can't pick us out with other senses._ "Okay," she said to her remaining Pokemon, Tyranitar and Nidoking, "they didn't all run off, so be ready. Take out anyone who comes at us and keep moving."

The first light of dawn came as Laresa and her two Pokemon made a run for it. As expected, the few Pokemon still there attacked, but Tyranitar and Nidoking didn't have any trouble with them. But then more came into the area. _Shit, what the hell is this?_ "Okay, move it!"

Even Tyranitar could only take so much, and he'd already taken a lot of hits. He went down, leaving Nidoking as the only one left. _Damn it, this is insane! What the hell is going on here? This is not natural behavior. What the hell is this?_

The pair kept moving, but it wasn't too long before Nidoking went down. _Well, shit,_ she thought as she recalled Nidoking. She then reached into the quick-access pouch and pulled out two bottles of Repel spray. _And now this is what I'm down to. Not good. Okay, all I can do now is try to get the hell away. But can I? And how far do I need to go to escape this? Shit, no choice but to go for it. Okay, then._

Laresa broke into a run, one Repel bottle in each hand. A Linoone came at her almost immediately. She ssprayed Repel in its face and ran. She kept moving, but didn't get far until her path was blocked. _Okay, shit. Can't go forward, and I don't think Repel is going to be enough. Okay, now what? _A thought came to her as she noticed the early dawn light, a verse she remembered from a story:

_ When_

_ all words are gone_

_ lost to the dawn_

_ is there a spell on which I can call upon?_

And there wasn't. Laresa didn't have anything left to get her out of this insane, unnatural frenzy. There wasn't anything she could do herself to get past, and her Pokemon were all down. They'd gone, one by one, and now, as the dawn came, there was nothing she could-_Wait, what if-?_ No, maybe there was something. But would it work? _If nothing else, its sudden appearance might prove enough of a distraction to let me escape._

Yes, there was something. _Let's hope the dawn comes._

_ When_

She reached down to her belt.

_ all words are gone_

She grabbed hold of the strange object.

_ lost to the dawn_

She found the jewel on the object.

_ There is a spell on which I can call upon_

She placed her finger on the jewel.

_ So I have sought to find the dawn_

She pressed down on the jewel.

The flash. And then-

* * *

Laresa picked herself up off the ground. _Something hit me, then. _She looked around.

She'd pressed the jewel, and then-

And then the flames had come, engulfing the area. But the flames were gone now. Laresa was used to Pokemon flames from battle not setting things on fire or anything, but even so, she was amazed at how little effect on the surrounding area there was after that inferno. And there, in a small clearing where the trees were knocked over in the battle, was the great bird, the Blazing Dawn, Ho-oh.

Laresa pressed the jewel just automatically, without even thinking, then collapsed to the ground as Ho-oh vanished. _Holy... fucking... shit._

Eventually, Laresa placed her pack on the ground and removed some medicines from the item pouch. She released her Pokemon again and began applying the medicine. "Here you go. I'm sorry you all had to get hurt like that. I didn't think of calling-"

A sharp look from Sceptile cut her off. "Yeah, I know," she said. "It's not surprising I forgot about that with all that shit going on." _Hell, I only found the thing yesterday. Of course I'm not used to having it yet. _"And I couldn't know that it would even work. Hell, why would I expect Ho-oh toprotect me, anyways?" She looked at the object. "I don't even know what this damn thing is, or why I have it, or how I ended up in the cave, or-" _Okay, girl, calm down. If you want to figure this out, take it one step at a time. Okay._

_Okay, _she thought as she resumed treating her Pokemon, _start with all the Pokemon that aren't found in this area. Okay, that one's easy. Relocation. If it's real, there's no reason to assume it only happens to humans. Pokemon could be getting hit by it all the time. There're probably a shitload of out-of-habitat sightings-actually, that would explain those Wurmple in Ilex. And the Bidoof outside of- of Goldenrod. Okay, so that answers that question. But why were so many Pokemon in this area, and why were they so violent? Because that wasn't natural. That kind of frenzy just doesn't happen. So why did it? And what the hell was with the numbers? That was a huge number of Pokemon involved in that; why were there so many? And are the two things separate events that just happened to coincide, or are they related? Hmm... well, I think the natural assumption is that they're related, but I don't want to commit to that right now, not when I don't know anything. Stay open to all possibilities. Maybe they're not related, maybe they're not-shit, and maybe they're related to the object. No, that's not it. That stuff was happening before I entered the area. Hmm... but maybe the cause of those does have some sort of relation to the object. I just don't know enough._

All right," Laresa said as she finished treatment of her Pokemon, "that should do it. I'm sorry I can't do anything more, but... hell, why do I still apologize for things like that? You all know the drill by now. Although I don't think any of you have ever been quite this badly beaten up. Don't worry, we'll get you fixed up properly as soon as we get to Jubilife." She recalled them all to their balls and got to her feet. She closed up her pack and slipped it back on. _Damn, and I lost my flashlight, too. Must have dropped it at some point during that mess. Okay, I'll have to get a replacement in Jubilife. Until then, well, that's why I keep an extra._

She started again towards Jubilife. _Okay, have to be careful. There's no guarantee there won't be another insane fight like that. And my team can't handle another one. Hell, we couldn't even handle the first one. It took Ho-oh to bail us out. Hopefully it'll do a repeat if we get in trouble again. Okay, but why the hell did it aid me in the first place? It came because I used the object to call it, but that can't be the only reason it came to aid me. I mean, why did it give me this thing in the first place? There's obviously a reason, but what is-_ "Gah!"

Laresa tripped over something and fell to the ground. She tucked into a roll and quickly got back to her feet, spinning around to find what she'd tripped over. Which was-_Oh, my-_

It was a dead body. A savagely mutilated dead body that had been literally ripped apart. Blood and guts were strewn all over, as were what was left of various ripped-off body parts. Much of the flesh had been ripped away, in some cases down to the bone. There were signs that feeding had occurred, and in some places there were signs of missing bone pieces having been literally bitten off.

Laresa stumbled backwards and fell on her butt. _Holy shit, what the fuck is this? _She took a few seconds to compose herself, then got to her feet. _Okay, girl, calm down. Don't freak out. It's just a body. Or... was a body; I don't know if the term really applies any more. Shit, what the hell did this? No, that's stupid. This-can't tell the gender. This person was a victim of that frenzy. Probably a trainer camping for the night. Did- did you have a chance to fight back? Or were you dead before you could wake up?_

Laresa looked away and fought down her nausea. _Okay, girl, focus. It's only a body. It's only a body, like what you would-damn it, I can't stop thinking about it! Okay, girl, focus. Immediate situation. Are this trainer's Pokemon all right? Okay, check the balls. If I can find them. Let's see... on the belt, all six. Amazing none got knocked off when the body was... when it had all this done to it. Okay, are the Pokemon in them?_

Laresa reached into her pocket and took out her Pokedex. She took one of the dead trainer's balls and placed it on a sensor in the Pokedex. After a second, the display showed the scan results: this partiticular ball was occupied, and it contained a Bidoof. _Shit, must have been a new Trainer. Damn._ She repeated the process with the other five balls, after which she put them in her pack. _Fairly standard beginner team. Damn, you never had a chance. Okay, um, trainer card. Probably slotted into the Pokedex like normal. Where's the Pokedex? Not in your pocket like mine, not after your cloths were torn to shreads. Maybe in your pack, which is..._

It didn't take her long to locate the pack. Or, rather, where the pack had been. She knew what had happened as soon as she saw the result. The trainer's equipment, medicines, everything was spread out all over the place as though it had exploded from the center of the mess. Which it had. _Shit, you had a compression failure. They must have ripped at your bag to get at your food or something. And damaged it heavily, given how much durability and redundancy they build in. Okay, let's see if your Pokedex is in this mess._

It took some searching, but eventually she found it. _Okay, good, found your Pokedex. Trainer card is... yes, it's here. Name is... Taylor Matthews. 18 years old. Yeah, you were just a beginner. Damn. Okay, got your Pokemon, Pokedex, and card. That's everything important. Okay, hand these over to authorities in the city. I'll have to remember to do that when I reach Jubilife. Okay, time to get moving._

Laresa resumed heading for Jubilife. _Okay, what the fuck was going on with that. And, shit, was Matthew the only victim? Or are their other bodies lying there. Lying there like- god damn it, girl! No! No thinking about that! Don't think about it! Okay, girl. Okay. Um... okay, the object. Yes, good. Focus on that, think about that. You may not have information, but you can still think of possible answers. Yes, do that. _She walked on, trying desperately to think about something other than death.

She didn't want to experience it herself.


	4. Chapter 4: Is the world going crazy?

**Chapter 4  
**_Is the world going crazy?_

Jubilife was one of the Sinnoh region's larger cities, or so Laresa had heard; this was actually her first time in the region. But regardless of how it compared to any other cities in Sinnoh, Jubilife was certainly large. Too large. _Okay, girl, you can handle this. Shit, I'm still not ready for a big city. But I need to... take care of a few things. Okay, girl, just get this done quickly and get out of here. No need to stay here for very-_

Laresa ran smack into the side of a building. "Gah!" She stepped back. _Okay, what the hell was that?_ She looked around. _Yes, I was going this way. Just a straight line. So how the hell'd I end up turned left like that? _She turned away from the building and resumed walking. _Shit, what the hell was that? How did I get turned to the left like that without noticing? Well, shit, I didn't notice the building until I ran into it. Of course, I'm close to it, so it'd only be a step or two before impact. Okay, girl, you know what? You just weren't paying attention. That's all it-_

The world turned sideways. Laresa stumbled and tried to catch her balance, but that just made it worse, and she fell to the ground. And then the world was normal again. Laresa picked herself up. _Okay, this is getting weird. What the hell was that? Wait, that happened before, at Floaroma. Well, things were upside-down that time, but still, it's the same thing. What the hell is this?_

Laresa made it to the Pokemon Center without any further incidents, although she did notice that there seemed to be a lot of police and medical personnel running around. She entered the Center and approached the nurse at the desk, who looked up as she came closer. 'Hello, there. How may I help you?"

"Here," Laresa said, handing the nurse the dead trainer Matthew's card. "Ran into this guy yesterday, a couple hours outside of Floaroma. Or what was left of him, at least. It was... bad."

"A dead- um, yes, um..." the nurse took a few seconds to compose herself. _And recall the procedure, too, maybe. Must be fairly new; I don't think you can go for too long at a Center without having to handle one of these._

"Okay," the nurse said eventually, "um, do you have the trainer's Pokedex and Pokemon?" Laresa handed them to the nurse. "Thank you. Um... oh, cause of death. Do you have any idea what happened?"

"I can guess," Laresa said. "There was an insane frenzy going on. Huge group of Pokemon, and they were all mindlessly attacking each other. I found him nearby after it cleared. I barely made it out alive myself; this guy never stood a chance."

"I... well, um... um, I'm sorry, I can't-"

"Here," Laresa said, handing the nurse her card. "You need to verify trainer status and mark me as reporter, right?"

"Um, yes. Thanks." She scanned Laresa's card and returned it to her.

"This your first death report?" Laresa asked.

"No," the nurse said. "I've been here for a while. But it's been pretty crazy lately. I'm sure you noticed the... activity in the city."

Laresa nodded. 'I did."

"It's been like that for a few days now. There've been a lot of incidents. They've been building in frequency for a while, now, but it's only recently that they've hit this level. Many Pokemon attacks-individual Pokemon or small groups; yours is the first report of a major frenzy in progress, although there have been a couple reports of what looked like frenzies getting started. There've been a lot of other injuries, too, mostly minor but some major. Weird stuff, too. People are reporting sudden perspective changes like they see things upside-down for an instant, seeing things, hearing strange voices, sudden flashes of light, and so on. The injuries are often part of the weirdness, too. I... no, it's not your problem, I'm sorry."

"Don't hold back on my account."

"It's not your problem. I don't want to trouble you with it."

"Say it if you want to. I don't mind." _And maybe hearing someone else's problems will help be keep my mind off of my own._

"If you're sure," the nurse said. "I don't know, I guess it's nothing too major, but it's, well, I think it's more a case of shock than anything else. You can hear about a million incidents, but until it hits close to home, it's not worrying. Once it does, though..."

"Did something happen?"

"Yeah," the nurse said. "My sister works as housekeeping at a hotel. She was out on a third-floor balcony, taking a brief break before getting back to work. She took a nasty fall. I got off the phone with the hospital a few minutes before you came in. Apparently, she says she was leaning on the rail when she just... fell. Like the railing just wasn't there."

"Through the railing?"

"That's what she says. You probably don't believe it, do you?"

Laresa laughed "I somehow went from Ilex Forest to Eterna Forest instantaneously. Compared to that, falling through a railing doesn't really sound all that strange."

"You were-"

"Yeah."

"So relocation really happens?"

"Apparently," Laresa said. "It happened to me, anyways."

"Really? Huh. That's one thing I didn't believe. Anyways, yeah, so if I seem a bit... discombobulated, that's why. And I'm sorry to trouble you with that-"

"Like I said, don't worry about it. I am a bit surprised that you're sharing that with a random stranger, though."

"Yeah, I'm not sure why I felt the need to tell you. Maybe I just needed to talk to someone. Anyways, I'll get the dead trainer report taken care of. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes," Laresa said. She handed the nurse her Pokeballs. "I need treatment for my team. They're all pretty badly beaten; it took everything we had to get through that frenzy. I did what I could, but there's a limit to what the medicines can do. They're not in any danger, but they do need significant treatment."

"Got it," the nurse said.

'A couple other things." Laresa removed her pack and handed to the nurse. "First, I'd like a recharge for my pack's batteries. They're nowhere near really needing it, and I've got the really long-lasting kind, but I like to charge them fairly often anyways. And take this, too." Laresa removed the object from the ball it was on, doing so under the counter so the nurse didn't see it happen, as the folding and unfolding was not how custom plates were normally designed to be attached and removed. She then handed the ball to the nurse. "Can I get a charge reading on this?"

"Unused, I take it? Sure, but, you know, it shouldn't need anything."

"I'd like it read anyways."

"Sure thing. Will that be all?"

'Yes," Laresa said.

"I'll get on it, then." The nurse took Laresa's balls and pack into the back. She returned shortly with the pack and empty ball. "Here. I got these done. Your pack's fully charged, and as for the ball, there's a couple percent's worth of power drain, nothing unusual if you've had it for a while."

"It's more than you might think," Laresa said as she took her pack and the ball. "I only buy the long-lasting balls." The standard ball batteries were generally more than sufficient, even if one spent a long time between charging them. However, long-lasting versions were available, the longest-lasting having batteries that could last up to three times as long. There were the only ones Laresa bought; they were more expensive, but Laresa had never found herself short on credits, and she felt it was worth the extra price.

"Still within tolerance," the nurse said. "I don't think you've got anything to worry about there." She returned to the back room, and Laresa, after re-folding the object over the ball, took a seat.

After some time, Laresa heard a voice from beside her. "Well, hello there." She stood and turned to face the newcomer. "I remember you, I think," he said "I watched your match back in Floaroma."

_Shit, this is the same guy. Was he real, then? Or am I seeing things now, too?_

"All done," the nurse said as she returned from the back with Laresa's balls.

Laresa turned to face the nurse as she spoke, then looked back at... nothing. The man was gone. _Okay, I'm losing it. All right, forget about him. Take your balls and go. _"Thanks," she said as she retrieved her balls from the nurse, returning them to her belt. "Okay, I'm out of here

* * *

Laresa made a stop at the local Trainer's Mart to replenish her supplies, then began making her way out of Jubilife, towards Canalave. She knew she wouldn't make it to Canalave today; Canalave was closer to Jubilife than Floaroma was, but it would be dark in just a couple hours. In fact, under normal circumstances, Laresa would've spent the night at the Jubilife Pokemon Center, but she didn't want to spend any more time in a big city than she had to. It was too uncomfortable, a reminder of what had happened in the last big city she'd visited, something she was trying desperately not to think about. Canalave would probably be okay, though; it was certainly large enough to be a city rather than a town, but it wasn't a big city; in fact, it was the smallest 'city' in Sinnoh.

Laresa walked along, keeping her mind busy by focusing on the object, as she'd been doing. What was it? And why was it given to her? And-

She walked straight into a tree. "Gah!" She stepped backwards, and...

And there was no tree. _What the hell?_ She looked around. _Yeah, that's what I thought. No trees in the main road here. Alongside it, yes, but I'm nowhere close to the side. This isn't like getting turned sideways back in the city. I just ran into something that isn't there. What the hell is this?_

Laresa stepped forward carefully, hands outstretched. But there was nothing there. _Okay, so there indeed is not anything here. So how the hell did I walk into a tree?_

Laresa walked on, thinking. _Okay, so I just walked into a tree that wasn't there. But I saw the tree, didn't I? As I walked into it? I guess I wasn't paying attention, but now that I think of it, I wouldn't know it was a tree if I hadn't seen it at some point. But... it wasn't there. So what happened? Hmm... okay, this isn't the only strange thing that's happened to me. The cave with Ho-oh and the object was the first. After that, there were the sudden perspective shifts, the odd running into the wall back in Jubilife, and then the tree. And that frenzy outside of Floaroma, too, although that was less something happening to me and more me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But things have been happening to others, right? If that nurse was right, at least. And the one in Floaroma about relocation. And they said it's been going on for some time now, but it only started happening to me when I got the object. Although there were those misplaced Pokemon before that. But that wasn't something that happened to me. And can the object really have something to do with it if it's been happening to others, too? There can't be very many of these things. But then why didn't anything happen to me until I got the object? Is it just a coincidence? And how much of this is actually happening as opposed to just a product of me going crazy?_

_Or is the world going crazy?_


	5. Chapter 5: Sometimes, the truth can hurt

**Chapter 5  
**_Sometimes, the truth can hurt_

Laresa had no need to visit the Pokemon Center in Canalave, so she went straight to the library. _Okay, let's see if I can figure anything out. All right, then. First step is finding the right section._ She checked the directory and found that the old legends had a section on the top floor. She went up, found the section, and began to browse the shelves. _Okay, this looks good. This one... this one..._

After grabing several texts, Laresa took them to the nearest table and sat down. _Okay, let's start with this one._ The first one she opened was a compilation of the legends of Ho-oh, which Laresa thought to be a very good starting point. After all, she knew Ho-oh was involved in what she was trying to figure out. She didn't simply read through the book; there were simply too many stories contained within for that to be practical. Instead, the browsed the contents and index. The index in particular gave her multiple pages to check; symbols especially were mentioned fairly often. None of them matched the symbol on the object, however, although the sunburst symbol on its own made frequent appearances.

The next book was a general reference text on various legends, a different one than the one Laresa carried with her. In particular, it was a good deal larger, and thus had a larger amount of content; in fact, it was merely the first volume of three, and this particular volume focused on the symbolic angle. Of particular use were the pages listing and picturing the symbols associated with the various Pokemon of legend. Sunburst variations were all over on Ho-oh's symbol page, but there was nothing that matched the symbol she was looking for. But there was no guarantee that Ho-oh was the only legendary beast involved in whatever was going on, so Laresa then checked the other symbol pages. And one on Giratina's page caught her eye. It was a connected pair of circles, one large and one small. _That's the circle pattern the symbol on the object has. Is it just coincidence, or is Giratina involved in all this? Hmm... well, it's a lead, so I guess it's time to find stories about Giratina. After checking the rest of these symbol pages; there's still one more piece of the symbol I haven't seen, and it may very well be a symbol of one of these others._ And it was; the interlocking circle pattern was shown as one of the symbols of Lugia.

_Okay,_ Laresa thought, _it looks like I'm getting somewhere. Hmm... well, I guess a Ho-oh/Lugia connection isn't that odd, given the number of stories that involve the both of them. Giratina's an odd one, though. What connection could it have to the two birds? Hmm... okay, so it looks like I'm dealing with a composite symbol. Does its composition matter? Ho-oh's symbol is in the small circle of Giratina's, and Lugia's is in the large circle. Is that important? And the object's got a separate sunburst, too. That's probably because of whatever link there is that allows it to call Ho-oh. But what's the connection between Ho-oh, Lugia, and Giratina? What-_

"Hello, there."

The voice snapped Laresa out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see a young man walk over. "Um, hello."

"I see you've got an interesting collection of books here."

"I'm looking into various legends. I've got a symbol I'm trying to find the meaning of."

"The one on your belt?"

Laresa nodded. "Yes. The symbol has personal significance, which is why I have it on a custom plate, but I do want to know what it means."

"A custom plate, huh?"

Laresa nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out...

_Okay, this just got interesting._

He pulled out an object like Laresa's. "Because that's not how I got mine."

* * *

He sat down next to Laresa. "My name's Cain. You?"

"Laresa. Let me see yours."

Cain handed his object to Laresa. _Yes, definitely like mine,_ she thought as she examined it. There were, however, a couple differences. The coloring was different; Laresa's was red on black, but this one was silver on black. And its jewel had a silver tint as opposed to the red tint of Laresa's. In addition, although both had the same composite symbol, the mark centered on the jewel was different. Laresa's had the sunburst of Ho-oh, but Cain's had the interlocking circle design Laresa had identified as a symbol of Lugia.

"Yeah, I definitely think this is like mine," she said as she handed it back. "However, although yours probably has the same effect as mine, there is, I think, one difference. First of all, can you confirm that pressing the jewel only has an effect when the object is folded around a Pokeball?"

Cain nodded. "Yes, that's right. Any idea why that is?"

"I'd assume it's because the object requires a power source."

"Um... yeah, that's fairly obvious, isn't it? And yours does the same thing mine does? It calls..."

Laresa nodded. "Yes. A different one, though, I believe. Would I be correct in assuming that yours calls Lugia?"

"Um, yes. How-"

"The interlocking circle design is a symbol of Lugia. Your object has that design on its own where mine has the sunburst, a symbol of Ho-oh."

"Yours calls Ho-oh, then?"

Laresa nodded. "Yes. I came here to try and figure out just what the thing is. Are you here for the same reason?"

"Yeah. Have you made any progress?"

"I think so. I've been examining this symbol here. It's a composite. You can see the circle and sunburst designs, representing Lugia and Ho-oh. The large and small connected circle design is something different. It's that one that I think is the key. Ho-oh and Lugia are often shown to be connected in some way, but the third symbol is the odd one out. It, too, is the mark of a Pokemon of legend, but not one with a known connection to the other two. The connected circle design is a symbol of Giratina."

"Giratina?"

Laresa nodded. "Here, see for yourself." She showed him the symbols in the book. "Giratina doesn't fit with Ho-oh and Lugia, but that's definitely one of its symbols."

"What does Giratina have to do with this?"

"Hm... well, how much do you know about Giratina?"

"Just the name, really. How about you?"

"I know some things," Laresa said. "I've actually got a book on these legends in my pack. Not a very... in-depth one, though. Useful as a quick reference, but now that I seem to have become involved in one of those legends, I'm thinking I'll add this one to it. All three volumes of it, I think."

"Um, right," Cain said "Well, I don't know anything about Giratina."

"Then I guess step one is to educate you. Giratina is... well, Giratina is not."

"Huh?"

"Giratina is the opposite of existence," Laresa said. "What we are, Giratina is not. What we are not, Giratina is. Giratina is opposition. It dwells in a realm that likewise exists in opposition, a realm known as the 'Distortion World'."

"Distortion World?"

"Yes. Descriptions of it are... vague, unclear. Not surprisingly, I guess, given what the place is supposed to be. It's a place existing as a distorted mirror of our world, which is where the name comes from. Common elements attributed to the place include chaotic, unpredictable changes to the natural laws; you might find yourself standing on the ceiling, or see land floating in midair. You might..." It hit her as she spoke. "...might instantly find yourself in a different spot. Hear things. See things. Disorientation. Things appearing and disappearing. This is making me feel dumb. Although I guess that I had no reason to think Giratina was connected to this until now, but it still should have occurred to me as a possibility. Especially given how many possibilities I've considered."

"You clearly know something I don't," Cain said. "Care to enlighten me?"

"Doesn't any of what I just listed sound familiar? Disorientation. Objects appearing and disappearing. People ending up somewhere else. Any of this ringing a bell? Because apparently things like that have been happening all over, and with increasing frequency."

"I have heard about that, yes. I thought it might be connected to these objects."

"I'm thinking it is, but the direct connection is with Giratina." She ran to the shelves and returned with a text on the legends of Giratina. She opened it as she sat down, and began scanning the index. "It's the Distortion World. The things that have been happening in this world are the normal state of affairs in the Distortion World. And these distortions are increasing in frequency. As if our world is becoming more like the Distortion World. Ah, this looks promising."

"You're leaving me behind," Cain said.

Laresa didn't pay attention. She was going over a section in the text. "Yes, that makes sense. Cain, Giratina exists as the third in a trio, the other two being Dialga and Palkia, those said to embody time and space."

"Yeah, I know a little about those two."

"Well, that was the mystery. Why Ho-oh and Lugia instead of Dialga and Palkia? But here, look at this. See here?" She indicated a passage of text. "A combination of the energies of Dialga and Palkia draws Giratina to it. Even if Giratina doesn't particularly want it too, it says. That's what's going on here. It couldn't be those two; that's why it's Ho-oh and Lugia."

"Um, could you explain just what the hell you're talking about?"

Laresa went back to the index. "I still need to confirm something. I'm wrong on everything if-ah, here we go." She flipped to another section. "Hmm... yes, this says there is one. Comes up in multiple legends. Yes, that's what I thought. Hm, it says it's usually attributed to Dialga and Palkia, but that could just be because they and Giratina are seen as a trio. It's not actually them. And... yes, as I thought. Mt. Coronet."

"What's Mt. Coronet have to do with anything?"

"You really don't know much at all about the legends, do you? In the legends, Mt. Coronet is the location of Dialga and Palkia. They may not actually reside there, but it's where they appear. One might expect their energies to be concentrated there as a result. And if their combined energies act as a draw for Giratina and the Distortion World, then it's only natural the the strongest connection between the two worlds would be at the point of the highest concentration of Dialga's and Palkia's energies."

"Wait, isn't it dangerous if the worlds are connected if they're opposed the way you say? What if something from this Distortion World got... through... to this... oh."

"You seem to be getting the idea," Laresa said.

Cain nodded. "Yes, I think so. There's like a leak, isn't there? From the Distortion World to this one. That's what you're saying, isn't it?"

"Here, look at this. Some sort of seal separating this world and the Distortion World is common in these legends. But a seal using the energies of Dialga and Palkia wouldn't work, as Giratina and the Distortion World are drawn to that combination. Some other energies would need to be used. That's where Ho-oh and Lugia come in, it has to be. Their energies form the seal. That's how they're involved in this. A bit cliched, really." _Unless... well, that's interesting. Is this..._

"Okay, well, what about us?" Cain said. "What does this have to do with you and me?"

"We were chosen for something," Laresa said. "If the seal's breaking, then it presumably needs to be reestablished. Humans may be required for that. It's common in the legends for human action to be required."

"Why? Why are humans needed? What are we supposed to do?"

"It usually involves human blood," Laresa said. "In the legends, human blood often serves as a catalyst."

"Why would it be set up like that?" Cain asked.

"I don't know. It's common in the legends, maybe because people wanted stories where humans had a role. Why something like this would really be set up that way, I don't know. I can't imagine human blood having any special properties that would be useful for that sort of thing. Hmm... maybe humans are required because Giratina is a Pokemon. Perhaps some non-Pokemon influence is required for a proper seal. Hmm... well, the reason probably doesn't matter. We are involved in this. There's something we are needed to do. Grab a book and help me look for just what that is."

* * *

After much work, Laresa and Cain were able to identify four locations. One legend in particular seemed relevant, a legend describing the sealing off of the Distortion World. It mentioned four 'focus points' throughout Sinnoh. Apparently, the seal required anchorings at four points, and these anchorings were termed 'focus points'.

"So," Cain said, "we're supposed to go to these four locations, find these focus points, do... something at them, then go to Mt. Coronet to fix the seal?"

"It's not quite as simple as visiting all four points, I'd think. First of all, they're not going to be obvious. Just look at their locations. The legends aren't using their current names, but matching them tells us what they are: Iron Island, Ravaged Path, Wayward Cave, and Solaceon Ruins. All for of those have been rather thoroughly explored."

"So you're saying we have the wrong locations?"

Laresa shook her head. "No. I think these objects are required to actually find the focus points. So we should be able to locate them even if nobody else has. But there's more. Didn't the colors mean anything to you?"

"Um, not really."

Laresa sighed. "Okay, you are not putting enough thought into this. Look as the descriptions of the focus points. The colors matter. The Iron Island and Wayward Cave points are described as marked in gold, and the Ravaged Path and Solaceon Ruins points in silver. That one in particular should stand out for you, seeing as how your object's symbol is in silver. The silver points need to be... activated, I guess. The silver points need to be activated by Lugia's object, and the gold ones by Ho-oh's."

"Um... your object's symbol is red. Not gold."

"Both are colors of Ho-oh, and you shouldn't expect legends to be 100 percent accurate."

"Whatever. Okay, so you're saying I have to activate Ravaged Path and Solaceon Ruins, and you have to activate Iron Island and Wayward Cave."

Laresa nodded. "I believe so, yes."

"And just how do we activate them?"

"Most likely by finding whatever mark marks them and getting some blood on it. There's probably something to do with the objects, too, likely making contact with the mark. Something simple like that. Ho-oh and Lugia will probably need to be called, too. And after activating them, we head to the peak of Mt. Coronet and the place known as the Spear Pillar. Both objects, connections complete, will no doubt be required. So we should split up, each hit our two locations, then meet at... Oreburgh's a good place. We'll meet at the Oreburgh Pokemon Center and proceed to the Spear Pillar."

"Um, slow down, Laresa. I never said I'd do anything like that. I mean, yeah, I don't like the idea of the seal breaking, but- but I just don't know. I just came here to find out what this object was. I don't know if I want to do something like that."

_Oh, really? Like you're really going to just walk away from this. I can tell. You're not about to leave, are you? _"And do you really know what these objects are? We've- well, you didn't contribute much. I've determined that the objects are used to connect the spear Pillar seal to the focus points. They also call Ho-oh and Lugia, presumably because some action on their part is required, which it would be, since the seal is formed with their energies. Can you really say you know what they are?"

"Well, no, I guess not," Cain admitted. "I still didn't sign on for anything like this, though."

_That's just the surprise talking, isn't it? You'd have to be blind to miss your desire to see this through. Still, if I'm wrong... _"Then give me your object, and I'll do it all myself."

"Why? Why the hell would you do that?"

"I could give several reasons," Laresa said. "I could say that it's for the good of the world. I could say that I want to truly discover what these objects are. I could say that I owe Ho-oh for saving my life when I ended up in the middle of a wild Pokemon frenzy. But although those things would all seem to be true, none of them are my reason."

"Then what is?"

_What is?_ The images, the memories. The event she was trying desperately not to think about. "I have a reason." Wandering aimlessly after leaving Goldenrod, not thinking about or truly caring where she went. "You want to know what it is." Not caring about what might happen to an inattentive person in the wild. "There's just one thing." Fear, horror, disgust, shock, everything she'd felt that night. "I have no intention of telling you what it is."

"Um... what?"

"I only met you about an hour ago. I'm not about to share personal secrets with you. Just know that I will be seeing this through. As for you, make your choice. Either you see this through as well, or you hand me your object and I'll take care of it on my own. Make your choice." _But I think you've already made it, haven't you? I don't know your motive, and I don't care, but anyone can see your interest in this._

And sure enough, he took hold of his object. "I'll do it, then, I think."

_As I thought._ "Then as I just said, you've got the Ravaged Path and Solaceon Ruins, and I've got Iron Island and Wayward Cave. We'll split up and hit our locations separately, then meet in Oreburgh before heading to Mt. Coronet."

"You don't want to go together?"

"No, I do not."

"Why not?"

_Because I don't fucking want to._ "Because it's personal, and I'm not going to say any more than that." _Because I don't want to spend too much time with you or any other human. Not so soon after the- after it. _"Just accept it, because I'm not changing my mind." _Because if we travel together, it will end badly. _"And if you want to travel together, well, tough shit, because I'm not doing it."

"Um, well, okay then. Obviously there's something more going on here."

"It's personal."

"All right, then. We'll do it your way. Let's register contact information, then."

Laresa pulled her Pokedex out of her pocket. "I was about to say the same thing." She navigated to the registration menu and hit the direct registration command. Cain did the same thing, and the two of them linked their Pokedexes for the brief time the registration required.

After registering, Cain pocketed his Pokedex and got to his feet. "Well, then, let's put these books back and get a move on."

"You just get going," Laresa said as she pocketed her own Pokedex. "I'll put the books back."

"Okay, if that's not a problem. Well, then, I guess I'll see you in Oreburgh. Good luck, I suppose."

"Same to you," Laresa said as Cain exited down the stairs. Once he was gone, she got up and took several of the books back, but she kept the bog volume one text out, and she returned to it when she was done putting the other books back, with an additional text, one on the legends of Giratine. _Okay, let's see here._

It took a little time, but Laresa eventually found what she was looking for. _So that is it, then. A seal and an insane world, huh? Interesting. Complicates things, though. Cain won't like this; waiting until he was gone to confirm it was definitely the right choice. Well, sometimes the truth can hurt. There's always a chance he'd accept it, but something tells me he probably won't. Better to let him remain ignorant. I'll need a plan for the event that he figures it out, though. Well, I can work that out on the move._

Laresa returned the two remaining books to the shelves, then exited the library. _Okay, now I need to find the ferry to Iron Island. Then I'll hit Wayward Cave, then it's on to Oreburgh. And then..._

_And then to Mt. Coronet. I've got a seal to break._


	6. Chapter 6: It was real, right?

**Chapter 6  
**_It was real, right?_

Iron Island was once the site of a mining operation, but the mine had been shut down some time ago. Trainers often visited the area, but they usually stayed outside or in the upper caves. Laresa passed through those areas without finding anything, and proceeded deeper into the mine. There had been a few Trainers around, but Laresa did nothing to draw their attention while in sight of them. Presumably, anyone who did notice her would assume from her behavior that she was on a Pokemon hunt.

After she got deeper in, Laresa got out her flashlight. She also released Luxray. "Okay, Luxray, usual underground routine. You can still see just fine, so keep an eye out. I don't want to get ambushed down here."

Laresa grabbed the object off of her belt. _Okay, there may not be a visual indicator, but hopefully, the object will provide indication. So let's get moving._ She and Luxray moved through the abandoned mine, Laresa with the object in her hand. Progress was slow; they moved carefully, both for safety reasons and to minimize the chance of missing something.

After a time, Laresa noticed a faint glow begin to emanate from the object. _But it wasn't doing that before. It only started now. Does that mean I'm getting close to... whatever I'm looking for? Okay, the glow's still very faint. It'll probably get brighter as I get closer._ And it did indeed become brighter as Laresa progressed further into the mine. Eventually, Laresa noticed another glow coming from ahead. _Definitely getting close. The object and whatever I'm looking for must be reacting to each other. Okay, not much farther._

The glow turned out to be coming from a spot on the wall. Laresa expected to find the symbol there, or at least part of it, but she saw no markings of any kind on the wall. The glow was the only odd thing about it. Until she approached the wall and held the object up to it. The sunburst symbol suddenly appeared on the wall, flashing. And the sunburst design on the object was flashing in unison. _Okay, this seems to be the spot. Now what? Hmm... okay, let's try physical contact._ She centered the center of the object's sunburst, the jewel, on the center of the design on the wall, and pressed the object up against it. The glows vanished, and then there was a flash, and-

And Laresa was somewhere else. _Still underground,_ she thought as she recalled Luxray and began to look around,_ but this is not the mine. Probably still on Iron Island, though. Hmm... actually, it's a lot like the cave I got the object in. Except for the light. _She turned her flashlight off. _Where the hell is it coming from? There doesn't seem to be any source, and- okay, that's got to be important._

On the wall was the full composite symbol. _No, wait. Giratina's and Ho-oh's symbols are there, but Lugia's isn't. And some sort of... I can't tell what those are._ She began to move towards the wall, and-

And he was standing in front of the symbol, facing Laresa. The man she'd seen in Floaroma, and again in Jubilife, and who had vanished both times. "You."

"Well, fancy seeing you here," the man said.

"Cut the shit and tell me who the hell you are. Or are you just some sort of illusion?" _Something I'm __seeing because I'm losing my mind._

"An illusion? Why would you think that?"

"Mainly because nobody else seems to see you, I only see you when you're alone, and you vanish whenever somebody else shows up."

"I see. An incorrect conclusion. Understandable, but still incorrect."

"Whatever. If you're not an illusion, then just who the hell are you?"

"Hmm... actually, I think I like that. Seems fitting, too. Very well, then. You may call me Illusion."

"Fine, then, 'Illusion'," Laresa said. "But that doesn't answer my question. Who are you?"

"I didn't come to be Mr. Exposition. I'm not here to answer questions. Besides, you already know what's going on, do you not?"

"So you're part of it, then."

Illusion nodded. "I am. And right now, I'm here for a fight."

"Excuse me?"

Illusion reached into a pocket and removed a Pokeball. "I'm here for a fight," he repeated. "So let's fight."

"What the hell makes you think I'll agree to a match?" _Even if I probably will. Maybe I can get some info out of you._

"Simple. If you refuse, you die. Oh, don't worry, I won't kill you if you lose. It's solely to force you to fight back. My Pokemon will kill you, but only if you do not send yours out to fight. So whether you agree to a match or not, you will fight. I'll follow the League regulations, don't worry. Six-member team, stick to match rules, all of that. So what'll it be?"

_You've got a beating coming, that's what. _"It'll be me beating the shit out of you and forcing out some answers," Laresa said.

"As I thought. You are quick to fight, aren't you? Even when you shouldn't. But then, that's exactly what I wanted. A fight. And now I have one." He released his first Pokemon, an Aggron.

Laresa sent out Sceptile. "Let's go, then. Sceptile, quick and low!"

Sceptile charged. Aggron sent a blast of flame at Sceptile, the 'Flamethrower' move. Sceptile dodged to the side and closed the remaining distance, delivering a Leaf Blade hit. Aggron lunged at Sceptile, but she was easily able to avoid the slower beast, dancing around it and continuing to land hits.

It didn't take long for Laresa to realize something unusual was going on. _Why the hell isn't Illusion saying anything? He's just standing there. Surely he doesn't intend to- well, let's find out. _"Sceptile, straight on!"

Sceptile jumped back and charged Aggron head-on. Aggron tried another blast of flame, but Sceptile dodged it, moved in and landed a good hit, then jumped back and charged again. Aggron's response to Sceptile's charges was always the same, although it did try moves other than Flamethrower. But it was still trying the same thing over and over, and more importantly, Illusion wasn't saying a thing.

"Okay, Sceptile," Laresa said, "revert to prior attack plan!"

_What the hell is going on here? _Laresa wondered as Sceptile returned to her previous pattern of dancing around Aggron while attacking. _Damn it, what Is Illusion up to? If he doesn't do anything, Aggron'll go down as easily as a wild Pokemon. Although now that I think about it, the thing should really be down already, given how much punishment it's taking._ But somehow, Aggron kept going. It never fought any more effectively than a wild Pokemon would, but it kept fighting far longer than it should have been able to. Eventually, though, it went down. Illusion recalled it and sent out a Ninetails, still without saying a word. Laresa recalled Sceptile and sent out Espeon. "Okay, Espeon, you get this one. Be careful; there's something odd going on here. All right, then, let's start simple. Full force!"

Espeon launched into an unrelenting attack pattern. Ninetails moved to evade, but Espeon's blasts came hard and fast, and Ninetails couldn't avoid them all. _Okay,_ Laresa thought, _this is getting stranger and stranger. Only a wild Pokemon would've done that badly evading that. And now Ninetails is still solely trying to evade. Illusion has to know that this is no way to win a battle, so why isn't he saying anything?_ And he wasn't; he was just standing there, as still and silent as he'd been when he'd had Aggron out. _What the hell is this?_

Ninetails was much more evasive than Aggron, but it still went down sooner, although it still lasted, like Aggron, far longer than it should have. Ninetails couldn't take hits as well as Aggron, and although Espeon didn't have a type advantage, she was Laresa's most powerful Pokemon. She wasn't the best at taking hits, but she could dish it out. And she was fairly agile, not taking nearly as many hits as some of Laresa's Pokemon did. But here, it was the offensive power that mattered. Espeon's blasts hit harder than anyone else on Laresa's team could, and she could launch some impressive series of moves. And she could perform non-stop attack chains of impressive length.

Illusion's next Pokemon was a Pinsir. Laresa recalled Espeon and sent out Nidoking. Nidoking's strength was toughness. Tyranitar was laresa's toughest, but Nidoking was a close second. Both were quite strong as well, Nidoking slightly more so than Tyranitar. Nidoking was also more agile than Tyranitar, but then, that wasn't exactly saying much.

"Okay, Nidoking," Laresa said, "go in close and personal!" _And Illusion's still standing there silently,_ the thought as Nidoking attacked Pinsir. _Why isn't he doing anything? It's almost like he's not even there. Hmm..._ As with the last two Pokemon, Pinsir seemed able to take far more punishment than it should be able to. But Nidoking clearly had the fight under control, as Pinsir was behaving as a wild Pokemon would, which was again like the previous two. _So let's try something, then._

Laresa circled around the battle, approaching Illusion, who seemed completely oblivious to her actions. _He's still just standing there. _She closed in on Illusion, and-

And Illusion was gone. Looking around, Laresa spotted him opposite her, on the other side of the battle, where she'd previously been. He hadn't turned around to face the battle, though; he was still staring in the same direction as before, completely motionless. _What the fuck? And just when I though it couldn't get any more bizarre. What the hell is going on here?_

Laresa waited as Nidoking finished Pinsir off. Illusion didn't even turn around while recalling Pinsir and sending out his next Pokemon, a Gardevoir. He didn't aim the balls over his back or anything, either. He pointed it straight ahead while recalling Pinsir, but Pinsir was behind him. And he pointed Gardevoir's ball straight ahead-away from the battlefield-but Gardevoir appeared behind him, between him and Laresa, facing Laresa as she recalled Nidoking and sent out Tyranitar. _Okay, if this is consistent, Gardevoir won't act any more intelligently than the others. Tyranitar shouldn't have any problems. Although there may very well be a nasty surprise coming._ "Okay, Tyranitar," she said, "take the straightforward approach."

As Tyranitar and gardevoir fought, Laresa again circled around, approaching Illusion. She didn't get too close this time, though. Just close enough to hit him with a rock she picked up and threw. Illusion was hit, but gave no reaction at all, not even a simple involuntary flinch. Laresa threw a few more rocks at him, each getting the same lack of a response.

Out of the corner of her eye, Laresa saw Tyranitar take hold of Gardevoir and slam it hard into the ground. She watched as Tyranitar gave Gardevoir one hell of a beating. _Okay, this one's performing poorly even for a wild Pokemon. Why? Wait. Could it be because..._ Laresa approached Illusion again, and like before, he was suddenly on the other side of the battle, back where he'd been at the start. And once more facing the battle. And almost immediately, Gardevoir's performance improved. It only improved to the wild-Pokemon level Illusion's other Pokemon had been at, but it was still an improvement.

Laresa circled around again, and Illusion was once more on the other side, facing away from the battle. And Gardevoir's performance degraded to its previous level. _Okay, what the fuck? Illusion's Pokemon don't do as well when he isn't watching? Although I didn't notice that with Pinsir. But then, Pinsir was almost down by the time Illusion... moved, or whatever. There may not have been enough time to notice it. Okay, so real question: what the hell is this? Shit, and just when I thought this couldn't get any stranger. His Pokemon fight like wild Pokemon and are way tougher than they should be. And they fight even worse when Illusion's not facing them. But Illusion does absolutely nothing, not even turn around. And he hasn't said a thing since he sent out Aggron. Well, let's just see if this gets a reaction._

Gardevoir went down. Illusion's next choice was a Scyther. Laresa recalled Tyranitar and sent out Luxray. Luxray wasn't Laresa's hardest hitter, nor was he very durable, but he was quick. He was extremely evasive, and also very accurate even against the most evasive of opponents. "Okay, Luxray, break!"

This one brief statement told Luxray exactly what was coming. So he wasn't surprised when, after positioning himself such that facing him put Scyther's back to Laresa, Laresa sent Nidoking into the battle. Nidoking creamed Scyther from behind before it even knew what was happening. And faced with the double-team of Luxray and Nidoking, it went down quickly despite being able to take a lot more damage than it should have.

Illusion didn't react at all to Laresa's cheating. He simply recalled Scyther and sent out his sixth Pokemon, an Arcanine. Luxray and Nidokind made short work of it, too, and the battle was over. Illusion recalled Arcanine. Laresa recalled Nidoking, who had landed the final blow, but left Luxray out. _Let's try a little experiment._

"Very good," Illusion said, finally turning around to face Laresa. "Very good indeed."

"Interesting end," Laresa said. "I didn't think that last his was going to connect."

"I guess Luxray there is a good shot."

_Thought so._ "Time to cut the crap. You don't have any idea what happened during that battle, do you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Luxray didn't land the final blow. That was Nidoking. Although I suppose some confusion to which one of them ended it isn't that hard to understand. After all, I did have them both out simultaneously for your last two."

"You-"

"I cheated, yes. I also hit you with several rocks, and approached you a few times. Your sudden relocation was not quite what I expected. And I didn't expect you to keep staring away from the battle after you moved."

"Wait-"

"Yeah, we ended the battle opposite our starting positions. Or didn't you notice? Oh, and your Pokemon performed even worse than usual when you weren't facing the battle, and their usual was just at the level of wild Pokemon. Although they were far more durable than should be possible. So yeah, I think you owe me some answers, Illusion. Just what the hell is going on here?"

"Interesting," Illusion said. "It seems some adjustments will have to be made. Well, I should thank you for that battle. It was most informative."

"Yeah, and now I want some goddamn answers. Starting with: just who and/or what the hell are you?"

"You know," Illusion said, "they say a picture is worth a thousand words."

_Pictures? Wait, those markings on the wall. That's what they are. Drawings. Images. I just haven't gotten close enough to make anything out clearly._ "I don't care. I want answers from you. I strongly doubt the designs on the wall will answer all of my questions. So start talking."

"All I can say is to examine the-"

"I don't think so," Laresa said. "None of that 'all I can say' crap. Start talking."

But Illusion was suddenly gone. _Damn it. Well, I guess that's to be expected. Okay, time to take a look at the 'pictures' on the wall._

Laresa walked over to the wall and examined the images. A lot was worn away, making many of the images difficult or impossible to decipher, but there was still plenty Laresa could make sense of. The objects were visible in many of the images, including a couple showing human blood dripping onto them. One of the clearest images was of the Spear Pillar on Mt. Coronet. Both Ho-oh and Lugia were visible in the image, and two human figures were holding up what was clearly the two objects. Above them, between the birds, was... something. _That has to be the connection point with the Distortion World. And this image next to it looks the same- no, there's a difference. Part of the connection point is different. And here's a third image. Is this a sequence? Let's see here... okay, this first one looks like it has the connection point, but this enclosing design, this isn't part of it, is it? In the second one here, it seems to be shattering, and in the third, it's gone. These are showing the seal being broken. So then has it been broken before? And subsequently restored, of course. Or..._

And examination of the other images yielded no further information there, but what Laresa could make out did tell her something about the objects. One image in particular she found informative. It showed something similar to the connection point in the other drawings, presumably meant to represent distortive influences. There was a person with one of the objects in the middle of the distortions, and within a radius of the object, there was very little distortion. Some, but not much. _So these objects protect against the distortions, then. Not completely, but substantially. I probably don't need to worry about major things like relocation, but perspective flips and stuff are still happening._ And there was a similar image of Spear Pillar. There was the connection point, and distortions surrounding it, except for an area centered around Spear Pillar, where there were no distortions. _So no distortions at spear Pillar, then. I wonder why? Maybe Palkia's and Dialga's energies have something to do with it. Hmm..._

There were too many indecipherable images, but Laresa was able to get some information from them. _And I should assume that the other focus point locations have similar images. Cain'll probably see enough to figure out that I'll be breaking the seal. I'll have to assume he won't cooperate. Well, for now, let's activate this point._ "Give me a scratch, Luxray," she said. "I need to get a little blood on this." Luxray complied, and laresa rubbed the object against her bleeding arm. Nothing happened, so laresa repeated the action, this time making sure that some blood got on the jewel. And that worked.

The jewel lit up with a bright glow. Laresa, making a guess, pointed it at the center of the symbol in the middle of the drawings. This appeared to be the right move, as the symbol too began to there was a flash, and suddenly Ho-oh was there. There were more flashes, and Laresa thought she saw a beam of light briefly connecting Ho-oh, the object, and the symbol on the wall. And then Ho-oh was gone, as was the glow; only the previous unnatural light remained. _No, that symbol is still glowing, just a lot more faintly._

And then there was another flash, and Laresa and Luxray were back in the mine. There was no more glow from either the object or the symbol in the mine. Laresa turned her flashlight back on, and saw that they symbol had vanished entirely. _Okay, then. Well, time to get out of here._

* * *

The nurse on duty at Canalave's Pokemon Center returned Laresa's balls to her. "I ran them through anyways, but it didn't look like your Pokemon needed any treatment."

_Wait, what? _She did, however, have a response ready "Yeah, but it's been a while since the last treatment, so I figured I'd get one done before I left the city."

"That's what I thought," the nurse said. "It's getting kind of late, though. Maybe you should spend the night here and leave tomorrow."

Laresa nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"I'll get a room ready."

As the nurse dissapeared into the back, Laresa released Sceptile from its ball. "Okay, help me out here. You do remember the battle, right?" Sceptile nodded. "So I didn't imagine the entire thing. Good to know I'm not that crazy yet. And your battle injuries felt real? They hurt and everything?" Another nod. "But they were gone by the time I got here?" Another nod. "Was it quick to happen, or gradual?" One grunt. The first choice. "Quick. How much time passed before you noticed it?" A short grunt. Not much time. "Very little, then? Hmm... maybe when we returned to the mine." Sceptile nodded again. "Yeah, that's the most likely point, I think. Okay, yet another mystery."

Laresa recalled Sceptile. A few moments later, the nurse emerged. 'All set. Swipe your card to get in. You probably know the drill."

Laresa nodded. "Thanks."

Laresa found her room and entered it. She placed her bag on the floor and sat down. _Okay, what the fuck is this? Shit, now there's another bizarre thing about that battle. It's like it wasn't even real. But it was real, right? What the hell is going on?_


	7. Chapter 7: Not this Not you

**Chapter 7  
**_Not this. Not you._

Reaching the next estination took a couple days. After departing Canalave, Laresa passed through Jubilife en route to Oreburgh. From Oreburgh, it was north to Wayward Cave. Eterna was close by, but she saw no reason to visit that city. If she had a need to go there, she would, but otherwise, it would be straight back to Rustboro after taking care of business in Wayward Cave.

Laresa proceeded into the cave the same way she had at Iron Island, with her flashlight on and Luxray out just in case. Although trainers did visit Wayward Cave, it wasn't nearly as popular a spot as Iron Island, and Laresa didn't see a single other trainer as she headed into the cave.

As before, the object eventually began glowing as Laresa proceeded deeper in. Wayward Cave had a much less straightforward layout than Iron Island, but by using the object's glow as a guide, Laresa was able to locate her destination without much trouble.

Like at Iron Island, there was a glow from the wall, and the sunburst symbol appeared when Laresa held the object up to it. As before, Laresa pressed the object against the symbol on the wall. But from there, things were different.

Both glows vanished, but then the symbol on the wall began flashing rapidly. And then there was a... well, Laresa wasn't sure what it was, but some sort of strange visual effect. And then the symbol's flashing became a stead glow. But there was no more wall; the symbol was just hanging in the air. And eventually, it faded away, leaving a new passage, one lit in the same unnatural manner as the cavern on Iron Island.

_Okay,_ Laresa thought, _that's interesting. Different from Iron Island. Well, what I'm looking for is likely through here. _She headed into the passage.

The passage was... strange. Distorted. _Do the focus points attract distortive effects, too? But no, there wasn't any- well, that was a stupid thought. There was plenty of weirdness there. The whole battle with Illusion was full of it. I don't think that was the location, though. I think it had more to do with Illusion. Anyways, why then is this tunnel distorted like this? Well, actually, it is different from the previous focus point. That one just took me to the cavern. This one's different. Maybe-well, it doesn't really matter, does it-_ "Gah!"

Laresa took a step back and looked around. _Nothing. Guess I ran into something that's not actually here._ She moved forward, only to run right into something again. "Gah!"

She looked around again. _Still nothing in sight. But..._ She moved forward carefully, arm outstretched. And she came into contact with... something. _I guess there is something here. I just can't see it. Well, I guess I should've expected invisible walls to turn up at some point. I just need to find a- there we go, an opening._ She stepped carefully through, then looked behind to make sure Luxray got through as well. Then something occurred to her. "Luxray, could you see anything there?"

Luxray shook his head. "No, huh? Well, I guess there's no easy way to check for any more, the-ah!" She smacked into another one. "Dammit, another one." She felt for an opening again, but this time it was more complicated. _Damn, seems like I'm dealing with an invisible maze type of thing here. Tunnel's more than wide enough for that sort of thing. Well, this makes things tricky. I should recall Luxray, though. It'll be hard enough to get myself through. I don't want to have to worry about getting him through, too._

With Luxray recalled, Laresa moved forward through the maze, feeling her way along the unseen walls. _Just keep following the wall, girl. With a maze like this one, with the exit obviously at the far end, all you need to do is start as far to one side as you can and follow the wall, and you'll get through eventually. But is this another distortion effect? It seems too... stable for that. Too constant. It's more likely something put here. But why? It's nothing more than an annoyance, certainly not a major obstacle to passage. So what's the purpose? Or is it a distortion that's somehow stabilized by the focus point?_

Eventually, the maze seemed to end. Laresa couldn't locate any more invisible walls. _Okay, so then am I done with-_ She saw something out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look, there was nothing there. As she turned back to continue on, she briefly saw... someone. Some odd-looking girl with a horn on her head and what looked like some sort of wine glass or something in her hand. Then she was gone. _Okay, now I saw a girl with a horn. Another one of these... what was the term I heard in Oreburgh? 'Unnatural phenomena', that's it. Another unnatural phenomenon. A good term for this stuff, really._

Laresa continued to catch glimpses of random things as she continued through the passage. Then she started hearing noises. And then she saw something in front of her. Approaching her. _A person, it looks like. A man. And not just a quick glimpse like I've been seeing. This is a solid image approaching, and-_

He was close enough now for Laresa to get a good look at him. She stopped dead in her tracks. _No. No no no no. Not this. Not you._ But it was. "Hi there," he said.

_No no no no no no no no no. _The images flashed before her. The memories. The night in Goldenrod. The alley. The man. Approaching.

"You don't seem too glad to see me," the man said.

_This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real. You're just seeing things. It's not real._

"What's the matter?" the man said. "Surprised to see me?"

_Push it out of your head. _"You're not real. You're not real!"

"Oh? Why would you say something like that?"

_It's all in your head. It's all in your head. _"You're not real! You're dead!"

"Am I now? What makes you say that?"

_Don't think about it. _But she couldn't help it. He was right there, even though..."You're dead! I killed you! I know you're dead!"

And the memories surfaced.

* * *

Goldenrod at night. Laresa walked through the empty streets, heading for the Pokemon Center. It was late, but Pokemon Centers were always open. Laresa had only just arrived in Goldenrod; she usually stopped earlier and set up camp for the night, but she'd been close enough to Goldenrod that she'd decided to press on.

The man lunged out just as Laresa passed the alley way he'd been concealed in. He grabbed Laresa and pulled her into the alley, shoving her against a wall. Before she could let out a cry, the man had a scarf wrapped around her head, covering her mouth. _What the- oh, fuck, is he- _He held Laresa against the wall with one hand while unbuckling her belt with the other. He yanked the belt away and tossed it aside, putting Laresa's Pokemon beyond her reach. _Fuck, he just- not good, he has to be-_

Laresa resisted, but the man slammed her back against the wall with both hands. "I wouldn't struggle if I were you. You're not getting away, so it'll only make things worse for you."_ Okay, focus. You have a plan for this. Focus. Okay, struggle. He'll expect it._ Laresa struggled against the man anyways, which he responded to by slamming her into the wall again. "I told you not to struggle. Jesus, you women are all dumb shits. All I want is a little fun, then I'll let you go. Shit, you'd think you bitches would enjoy it just as much as I do."

The man let go with one hand and pulled his pants down, then took Laresa's shorts and pulled them down around her legs._ That settles it. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh- damn it, focus! _He put both hands on Laresa again, pinning her arms to her side, and came closer, and closer. Laresa continued to struggle. _Keep it up. He still expects it._

"Damn it, woman," the man said, "what the hell is wrong with you? You could've enjoyed this just as much as me. But you have to go and resist. You fight back, and because you fight back, everything falls apart. You could've walked away unharmed. And you still might, if you stop fighting back. Which you should; it's not doing you any good, now, is it?"

Laresa stopped struggling, keeping up the appearance of being terrified as the man came in-which wasn't hard, as despite having a plan, she actually was terrified. But she did have a plan. _Wait for it... wait for it... wait for-now!_

The obvious moves were a knee to the groin or a headbutt, so Laresa did neither; the man would be ready for them. She twisted her arm, taking the man by surprise and loosening his grip. She immediately went for a gut punch, but the man reacted quickly, releasing Laresa and jumping back to avoid it. "Oh, now you've done it," he said. "Now I'm going to have to force you down. You're not going to come away unhurt, bitch. And when this is done, remember that your injuries are your fault."

The man was clearly very experienced at this. From the start, everything he did was done quickly and with the clear intention of removing any means Laresa had to fight back. And she could tell from his posture that he had experience in hand-to-hand combat. Laresa's posture should tell him that she, too, knew what she was doing in a fight. But the man still clearly thought he could take her, and since Laresa didn't know his exact level of skill, she didn't know whether or not he was right. But it didn't matter, as the man had made a mistake. He thought that Laresa was disarmed.

The man came at her.

She quickly reached behind her back and took hold of her knife, which she kept clipped on underneath her belt, precisely so that she'd have it, unknown to and unexpected by any assailant who removed her belt.

She drew the knife just as the man was coming to within her reach.

The weapon's sudden appearance startled the man, giving Laresa an opening.

She took the knife.

She slashed across the man's neck.

Momentum carried the man directly into Laresa, and she fell to the ground, the man coming down on top of her, blood spurting onto her face. And then-

And then she felt his penis come to rest against the skin of her bare leg.

She rolled over and shoved herself away from the man, collapsing on the ground next to him, breathing heavily. _Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god...._

Laresa didn't notice the approaching person until he but his hands on her shoulders. She looked pu, saw him, and immediately let out a cry while pushing him away. "Stay back! _Stay the hell away from me!_"

The man backed off and left Laresa on the ground. He stepped over to the would-be rapist's body, shining a flashlight on it.

Laresa jerked in shock as the man began to speak. "Yeah, I've got a situation here. A dead body and a girl. Yeah, girl's terrified. Scared out of her mind. She's got a knife, too. Yeah, has to be rape. Her shorts are down, and the dead man's pants are down. Cause of death? That's easy. His throat's been cut. Yeah, I think the girl did it, too. Yeah, get a woman over here. You have my location? Oh, that close? Okay, got it. Out."

The man continued to examine the body as Laresa lay on the ground in hysterics. Before long, someone else was approaching. She looked up. It was a woman. A cop. And then she noticed for the first time, as the newcomer's light hit him, that the man was also a cop. She came to a halt next to him and looked at the body. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Looks like it to me," the male cop said. "Recovery's on the way. You see to the girl. I don't think she's ready for a man yet."

The woman knelt down in front of Laresa. "It's okay. It's okay. Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you. Do you know who I am?"

Laresa found that she could barely speak "A- a- you're a cop," she finally got out.

"Yes, I'm a cop. Don't worry, you're safe. Please, come with me. We'll make sure you're taken care of." She reached in and grabbed Laresa by the shoulders. Laresa initially jerked away instinctively, but she then let the woman pull her to her feet. She took a step forward and almost fell to the ground again, but the woman came in to support her. "Don't worry, I've got you."

* * *

The examiner pronounced the rapist dead almost immediately after the examination began upon the body's arrival at the station. The female officer-Jennifer, she'd said her name was-brought the news to Laresa, who was sitting in a room by herself. "He's dead, of course," she said. "How are you holding up?"

"How the fuck do you think I'm holding up?"

"No need to swear. But yeah, you're right. Still, I had to ask. Listen, Laresa. We've got a positive ID on the body. The man was Taylor Athis, a known rapist. We've been after him for some time now."

"And then he went for me, and I killed him. I killed him, I fucking-"

"Calm down," Jennifer said. "It's over. Yes, you killed him, but he attacked you. He wanted to rape you. Nobody can blame you for fighting back."

"He would."

"Yes," Jennifer said, "I suppose he would. We've spoken to past victims of his. They all report that he blamed anything he did on them fighting back. That he'd say they should be enjoying it, too. But you're not taking anything he said seriously, are you? He was just trying to justify his actions. He was wrong, you hear me? Wrong. Everything he was doing was wrong, and you did nothing wrong by fighting back, even killing him."

"Yeah? Then what are you going to do with me?"

"Nothing," Jennifer said. "We have no reason to doubt anything you told us. Like I said, we've been after Taylor for a while. We don't need anything more to believe you. Nobody can charge you with anything. We won't even hold you here, although I do recommend that you spend the night. Unless, do you have family in the area?"

"No."

"Then yeah, I'd definitely say you should spend the night. Oh, and here." Jennifer produced Laresa's belt, with all six Pokeballs attached, and handed it to her. "They told me to give this back to you," she continued as Laresa put the belt on. "I can't return your knife, though. You can get it back when you leave."

* * *

And she had done so upon leaving the following morning. She'd immediately put it in the quick-access pocked; she didn't want to see it, didn't want to be reminded of what had happened, but she also wanted it available in case she truly needed it. She'd left Goldenrod immediately, wandering south, in the direction of Azalea, not really paying attention. Even a couple sightings of Pokemon not found in the area barely registered. And then, in Ilex Forest, she was suddenly in the cavern, found the object, and had the initial encounter with Ho-oh. Which led to where she was now, face-to-face with the very man she killed.

"Do I look dead to you?" Taylor said as he continued to approach. "Do I? Because I don't look dead to myself."

_Go away, go away, go away, goawaygoawaygoaway- _"_Get the fuck out of my head_!" Laresa screamed as she charged Taylor, aiming for a punch to the gut.

She struck nothing and lost her balance, nearly falling over. She steadied herself and looked around. Taylor was nowhere to be seen. _It was all in your head. It was all in your head. It wasn't real. It wasn't real. It- okay, girl, focus. Fucking focus. It was fake. Not real. Damn it, girl, _focus_! Okay, just keep going. Keep going. Find the focus point. Activate it. Yes. Okay. Okay. Focus on that. Okay. Okay, then, get moving._

* * *

The rest was uneventful. Nothing more awaited Laresa as she located and activated the focus point. As at the Iron Island point, there were numerous drawings on the walls, but also as with that focus point, only some could still be made out. And not ones that gave Laresa any new information. So she left, proceeding back through the tunnel. Nothing happened this time; even the invisible walls were gone. And as soon as Laresa exited the passage, it vanished, leaving only the plain cave wall in its place.

Laresa made her way out of Wayward Cave and started back towards Oreburgh. Her part was done. Now she just had to wait for Cain to arrive. But she had to assume that Cain had seen enough from wall drawings at his focus points to figure out that the objects were used to break the seal, not make it. And she had to assume that because of this, Cain would refuse to continue on to the conclusion, and he would also likely refuse to surrender his object so that Laresa could do it alone. Fortunately, there was a simple way to ensure that Cain showed up at the Spear Pillar.

Upon reaching Rustboro, Laresa immediately went to the Pokemon center. She had the nurse run the standard treatment even tough her team didn't need it, and also had her recharge her pack's batteries while she was there.

"And one more thing," Laresa said as the nurse returned her balls. "I'd like to leave a message for someone."

"Okay. What's the name?"

"His name's Cain," Laresa said, "I've got him registered. Here." She pulled up his registration on her Pokedex and handed it to the nurse.

The nurse transferred the info from the Pokedex, then returned it to Laresa. "Okal, record your message starting... now."

"I've gone ahead to get things started," Laresa said. "Catch up with me." She nodded at the nurse, who stopped the recorder.

"I'll go ahead and assume he'll know what you're talking about," the nurse said.

"Correct."

"Well, will there be anything else?"

"No," Laresa said. "Thanks."

Laresa left the Pokemon Center and proceeded east out of Oreburgh, towards Mt. Coronet. Her plan was simple: make her way up to the Spear Pillar and wait for Cain there. Her message would ensure that Cain followed, if only with the intent to stop her. But she'd be ready for him.

But Laresa was doing this, acting out this chain of events, solely as a distraction. But the distraction wouldn't last forever. And then what?

What would happen once the distraction was gone?


	8. Chapter 8: It seems it's time

**Chapter 8  
**_It seems it's time_

Mt. Coronet was a frequently visited area; passing through the lower caves was much faster than going around, so it was common for people to pass through. This wasn't true as one got higher up, however. It was essentially only trainers who went higher, this decreased as one got higher and higher. The Spear Pillar was visited only very rarely. Laresa found it very unlikely that anyone but Cain would ascend all the way to the Spear Pillar while she was there, although she did, of course, have a cover story ready in case she was wrong.

Upon reaching the Spear Pillar, Laresa found a spot to set her bag down, then released all six of her Pokemon. "Okay, everyone," she said, "we've got a little something to take care of here. Unfortunately, we may be encountering a little opposition. Cain may very well not be willing to do what needs to be done. So there are several ways this could play out. First, the easiest. If Cain doesn't know what's really going on, there won't be a problem. But we have to ready if he does know.

"Now, it's possible that he'll know what's really going on and yet be willing to do his part anyways, in which case there's also no problem. But I'm expecting that he'll come here in opposition. That's why we're here instead of waiting for him in Oreburgh. This way, he has to come. And although he could leave his object behind, I doubt he will. He can't be sure he won't need it to counter something I'm doing here-which, of course, is also what ensures he'll come at all.

"We're not going to do anything until and unless it becomes clear that Cain's against us, but if he is, I intend to strike first. And I intend to be ready for anything he may try against us. So we've got some work to do."

* * *

Back inside the caves, on the path up to the Spear Pillar. _Okay, this is a good spot. There's only the one straight path from here to the top, and it's long enough to allow for a good level of warning. _"Okay, this marks our watch point. Absol, Luxray, you'll be exchanging watch duty. Alternate watches and all that. Your job is simple. When you see Cain, get your ass up to the top and let us know he's on the way, and we'll get into position. I'll have positions ready for you two. When you get up, I'll tell you what they are, and you'll take them."

* * *

Further up the caves, closer to the top. _This is a good spot._ "Espeon, this is your spot. When we get the signal that Cain's on the way, you'll take position here. Your job is to stay hidden as Cain passes, then follow him without being seen. He may set up some kind of surprise, have a Pokemon tunnel up to take us by surprise or something. If he does leave a Pokemon behind, wait until he's moved on, then make your move. If you think you can take whatever's been left, do so. If not, pass it by and follow Cain up. Which is also what I want you to do if you do take out who he leaves behind, or if he doesn't leave anyone behind. Do remain out of sight, though. Follow him up, and if a fight starts, join in. I'll be overt."

* * *

Back at the Spear Pillar, a spot behind the cave exit. _Perfect._ "Sceptile, this is your spot. I'm hoping that Cain will cooperate, but if not, your job is to grab his object. I'll use signal two. When you hear it, wait for your chance. As soon as you get a chance, move in and grab the object. Give him a cut and make sure some of his blood gets on the jewel, then get the object to me.

"That just leaves you two, Tyranitar and Nidoking. I'll have to think a bit about how to place you, but you'll be up here, ready for a fight. Now, if there is a fight, it's not going to be a trainer match. It'll be a full fight, us against Cain's team. If a fight does happen, the focus will be on the objects. Cain will be trying to get his back, and will doubtless go after mine as well. We'll have to make sure he doesn't get both. If I'm right about how things will happen, after starting things up, all we'll need to do is keep them away from him for long enough. It's okay if he gets one, but if he gets both, he'll doubtlessly go for replacing the seal. Which is fine after a certain point. We'll just need to make sure he doesn't get a chance until that point."

* * *

Laresa did all she could to keep herself busy, checking and double-checking everything, and planning as completely as she could. She was on her way back to the top after updating Absol and Luxray when...

"Well, hello there."

"What do you want, Illusion?"

"Oh, not much," Illusion said. "Nothing from you. I'm just checking on something. And I decided to say hi as long as I was here."

"Bullshit. What do you actually want?"

"You know, you really need to be less aggressive."

"Well, excuse me for showing hostility to someone who threatened to kill me last time I saw him."

"I told you," Illusion said, "that was only to force you to battle."

"Yeah? Well, you still owe me an explanation as to just what the hell all that shit was, anyways."

"Do I?"

Laresa took a step forward. "You're really starting to piss me off, you know that? Now tell me why you're here, or this just might end up hurting."

"And you think that'll work? Do you really think it's possible for you to touch me?"

Laresa hit him in the forehead with a thrown rock. "I don't know what the hell happened when I approached you during the battle, but I know rocks hit you. Now spit it out. What the hell are you here?"

"I told you, I came to check on something. The connection point, specifically. And even more specifically, the seal. And I suppose that, yes, this all does have something to do with you. I hope that by now you're aware of what you're supposed to do here."

"And what, you expect me to tell you anything? Not happening. Although if you're willing to answer my questions, then I'd be willing to answer yours. All I'll say is that I've known what needs to be done since before the first focus point. Oh, and that none of the information I've obtained from any source includes anything about you. Just what the hell is your interest in this, anyways?"

"What's my interest? What, you don't think I have an interest in what happens to this world?"

"I think," Laresa said, "that you've got a hell of a lot that you're not telling me. Such as just who or what you are."

"Which is not something I plan to reveal."

_Well, let's put out a crazy possibility and see if maybe your reaction reveals anything. _"Yeah? Well, what if I already have some idea? What if maybe my information does include everyone who's involved in all this? What would you think if I said you were Giratina?"

That clearly caught Illusion off guard. "If I was- you think I'm- why- okay, um, no. Not really a bad guess, though, now that I think about it. Not a correct guess, though."

"Then what is correct?"

But Illusion was gone.

_Well, that got a reaction_, Laresa thought as she started back up to the top. _And not quite the one I was expecting, I don't think. The answer was honest, I think, but his reaction... I think that theory hit a little too close to home. It seems likely, I think, that you're connected with Giratina in some way. Which would make sense, seeing as how Ho-oh has me and Lugia has Cain. Although that wouldn't explain the crazy parts like all that shit during the battle. So just what the hell are you?_

* * *

Laresa knew it had to happen eventually. She didn't want to do it, but refraining from doing it would be a risk. She hoped that she wouldn't need it, but she didn't want to be without it if she did need it.

She sat down and opened the quick-access pouch on her pack, taking out her knife. The last time she'd use it had been when... _All right, fine, when I killed him. There. I said it-well, thought, but whatever._ As soon as she'd gotten it back when departing the police station, she'd placed it in her bag, and hadn't used, held, or even seen it since. _Until now. Okay, decision time._

She still didn't want to use the knife. Didn't even want to see it. But what if she needed it? She couldn't know how events would play out; it might be necessary. But she didn't want to use it. Didn't want to- O_kay, you know what? Fuck it. That doesn't matter._ She clipped the knife on in its usual spot under her belt._ I don't intend to use it, but it's better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it_.

It was just a couple days after Laresa's arrival at the Spear Pillar that Cain arrived. Laresa got to her feet as soon as Absol and Luxray emerged from the caves. "Is he here?" They both nodded. "Okay, then. Espeon, get down there! Sceptile, Nidoking, in position! Absol, Luxray, take position beside Sceptile. She'll activate on signal two and move as soon as she sees her chance. When she does, you two cover her."

Laresa's team moved into position. Espeon disappeared into the caves while the others hid themselves as instructed. Only Tyranitar didn't move. Laresa took a seat on a large rock. _Good, look natural. Best if he doesn't know you know he's here. Just act like you've set up camp here and are waiting._

_Okay, then. Looks like we're all ready to go. It seems it's time._


	9. Chapter 9: On edge

**Chapter 9  
**_On edge_

It wasn't long before Cain emerged from the caves. "There you are, Laresa."

Laresa turned to face him. "Ah, Cain," she said as she got to her feet. "I was wondering when you'd show up."

He gestured to Tyranitar. "You expecting trouble?"

_He's on edge. Most wouldn't find that worth mentioning._ "No, but I'm ready for it anyways. You never know what you'll run into in a place like this."

"I suppose. Anyways, what happened to meeting in Oreburgh?"

"I decided to go on ahead," Laresa said. "I assume you activated both of your focus points?"

Cain nodded. "I did. You?"

"Yes. You ready to do this?"

"Um, Laresa," Cain said after a brief pause, "I guess you didn't figure it out. Um, were there drawings on the walls at your focus points?"

Laresa nodded. "Yeah. Most of them were impossible to make out, though. I didn't learn anything from them that I didn't already know."

"There were a lot that I couldn't make out, too. But I guess more of mine were decipherable, because I did learn something. I was expecting you to be waiting in Oreburgh, and I wish you had been; it would've saved us both a trip."

_Thought so. He knows we're here to break the seal, and he doesn't want to._ "What do you mean?"

"Laresa," Cain said, "what we're doing isn't going to fix the seal. It's going to break it."

_And there it is. Okay, signal time._ "Um, what exactly the hell are you talking about? There was no visible change, but Laresa knew Sceptile had heard the signal phrase, 'exactly the hell', and was waiting for her chance.

"It was pretty clear," Cain said. "There were images that clearly showed the objects being used to break the seal. Laresa, this isn't going to fix anything. The distortions, all that will just get worse without the seal, not-ah!"

Sceptile made her move. She ran out of hiding and quickly snatched Cain's object from his belt. Something dashed out of the caves-an Arcanine. It moved to attack Sceptile, but then Absol was there. And although Absol wasn't Laresa's most durable Pokemon, he was decently quick and agile, and he hit extremely hard. His well-timed slam knocked Arcanine out of its charge.

Sceptile gave Cain a long scratch, drawing blood. She pressed the jewel of Cain's object up against the blood, then stepped back and went towards Laresa. And then she took an ice blast to the back. A Vaporeon emerged from the cave towards Sceptile, but it didn't get to her, either, as it suddenly found itself having to dodge a series of electric blasts from Luxray.

A Sandslash was next out of the cave, headed for Sceptile. Sceptile got back to her feet. And then an Electrode flew into the back of her head, knocking her to the ground, as the Machoke that threw it emerged. Sandslash snatched the object away from Sceptile.

_Not so fast,_ Laresa thought. "Nidoking!"

Nidoking burst out of the ground where he'd hidden himself, directly in front of Sandslash. He creamed Sandslash and took the object, which he tossed back to Sceptile. Sceptile knocked Electrode away and tossed the object to Laresa, who slipped it into her pocket.

A Weavile emerged from the cave, heading directly for Laresa. Then it got hit and knocked over by a blast from Espeon, who came running out after it. Espeon's psychic blasts were ineffective, of course, but thay could still knock Weavile down. Nidoking moved in, grabbed Weavile, and slammed it into the ground.

Sandslash dashed around Sceptile and made a beeline for Laresa. It leaped at her, only to slam directly into Tyranitar. Tyranitar grabbed it, then dropped it as he took an Electrode to the face. Espeon turned her attention to Machoke as Tyranitar tossed Electrode aside. Sandslash ducked around the distracted Tyranitar to reach Laresa, and got a bowling ball slammed into his face as a result. But then Weavile came in too quickly for Laresa to get another swing off, took Cain's object out of her pocket, and made an expert toss to Cain.

The initial fight came to a halt. "Why the hell do you have a bowling ball?" Cain asked.

"What, you didn't think I'd be ready to defend myself? Never underestimate the value of a good blunt object. You never know what'll come in handy."

"Damn it, Laresa, just what the hell are you up to?"

"You seem to have figured it out already," Laresa said. "I'm here to break the seal. And I thought you might not agree with that, so I was ready with an ambush. Although I thought you might be expecting one. I have to say, though, that you did quite well. I especially liked the Electrode toss."

"I guess you just weren't ready enough," Cain said. "Looks like you lose this round."

"Not really," Laresa said. "Sure, I don't have your object, but that was just a bonus, anyways. It's already active; Sceptile got your blood on it. So now..." She grabbed her own object. "Give me a little scratch, please, Tyranitar." Tyranitar did so, and Laresa pressed her object's jewel against the wound. The jewels on both objects lit up. "There we go. Now for step two."

"I don't think so," Cain said. "I'm not doing anything."

"I don't plan on giving you a choice," Laresa said. "I don't care if you don't want to do it. Forcing you to is just fine with me." She pressed the jewel on her object, and Ho-oh promptly appeared.

"Looks like you screwed up," Cain said as he pressed the jewel on his object, causing Lugia to appear. "I can match you on that one."

Laresa laughed. "I was counting on that, actually."

The symbols on the objects began to glow, as did the jewels. Ho-oh and Lugia positioned themselves at the far end of the Spear Pillar, and they too began to glow. Then there was a series of flashes, and then...

And then a... _I have no idea how the hell to describe that, but I think I know what it is. It's obviously the connection point with the Distortion World. Which means I should start seeing some sort of-there, that's got to be it._ There were... _Ripples, I guess._ It reminded Laresa of the shimmering effect visible in the air over a significant heat source, only much more... _substantial? Hell, I don't know._ They seemed to be drawn to the connection point. And then things went crazy. Everything beyond the Spear Pillar appeared... _well, distorted. The distortive effects are being drawn in. The Spear Pillar is protected from the distortions, but they're passing everywhere around it._

"What the hell did you do?" Cain said.

"Oh, you mean getting you to call Lugia? Both birds are required for this, so I went for a situation where you'd have no choice but to call Lugia. If you hadn't taken the bait, of course, your team would've gone down quickly, and I'd then have no problem taking the object from you and calling Lugia myself. But this isn't their fight, so I was hoping that wouldn't be necessary. And fortunately, I was correct. And don't expect that to work," she said as cain pressed the jewel again. "This is where the birds are supposed to be right now. They're not going to leave just because you're pushing a button. Hey," she called out to the birds, "Let me know when it's time for the next step, would you? I think I may be a little busy here." She turned back to Cain. "Okay, so now what? You want to fight?"

"Damn it, why the hell are you doing this?"

"This is what we're supposed to do; not fix the seal, but break it."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, maybe I'll get to that. I am, after all, trying to explain all of this. Actually, you got most of it back in Canalave, but there's one thing you didn't figure out. I had the thought, and confirmed it after you left. Breaking the-"

"You know what, no," Cain said. "No explanations now. You're out to stall for time, aren't you? 'Let me know when it's time' and all that. You're just wasting time."

"I suppose, although I did plan to tell the truth."

"Do it later," Cain said. "Go!"

Cain's team sprung into action, as did Laresa's team, and the battle resumed.

* * *

As the battle continued, the distortive effect around the Spear Pillar intensified. _How much time is left? Shit, I have no idea how long-_

Ho-oh gave a cry. _Well, I guess that answers that question._ "Okay, stop!"

The battle came to a halt again as Laresa's team stopped fighting. Laresa walked up to Cain and held out her object. "Here, take it."

Cain didn't take the object. "Wait, what? You're giving up? No, hold on. You're trying to trick me into doing something, aren't you? You were just waiting until it's time for the 'next step', and now it is."

"Yes. And it just so happens that the next step is to stop this. Which is what you want to do, right? Both objects are needed for that, and I doubt you'd agree to let me have this one during the process, so the simplest solution is to just give it to you."

"I think you need to explain some things," Cain said.

"Then you should have let me do so earlier. There's no time right now."

"Well, too bad. I don't know that I can trust you. Why would you break the seal only to replace it?"

"You know as well as I do that the distortion is worsening."

"Yeah, because the seal's weakening."

"The opposite, actually," Laresa said. "The distortive effects are actually the result of the seal being too strong."

"What?"

"The thought occurred to me back in Canalave. I did some more investigating after you left and confirmed it. The Distortion World is an outlet for distortions in this world."

"And that means what?"

"It means that the Distortion World is not leaking through to this world. The distortions originate in this world. Any setup degrades over time. If not addressed, the degradation builds up until the setup can no longer function properly. In this world, the degradation manifests as all these 'unnatural phenomena' that've been happen-" Laresa stumbled as the world suddenly flipped. She kept her balance this time, though, and her perspective was soon back to normal. _Well, shit. _"Okay, we're out of time. The distortions are starting to overwhelm this place's ability to keep them out. There are three ways this can happen. You can take my object and do this by yourself, you can give me yours and I'll do it, or we can do it together."

"I'm not cooperating with you," Cain said. "especially not when you keep dodging the question of what you're trying to do."

Laresa landed a gut punch. As her team sprang back into action against Cain's, Laresa took Cain's object. "Sorry, but there's no time for that right now." _Okay, so just the usual, then?_

"What the hell do you want?" Cain said as he caught his breath. "Damn it, Laresa, are you crazy?"

"Basically, yes." She pressed the jewels on both objects, and as had happened at the focus points, the objects began to glow. Then there was a bright flash, and-

Something knocked Laresa to the ground. As her vision cleared, she got mack to her feet, and noticed that Cain and most of both Pokemon teams had also been knocked down. Laresa looked around for the objects, which she'd dropped as she hit the ground. Except that they hadn't dropped. They were somehow suspended in the air, the jewels facing the connection point.

Another... blast, or whatever it was, knocked everyone down again. As Laresa got to her feet once more, she saw the objects stop glowing and fall to the ground. As she picked them up, she noticed that the view from the Spear Pillar was no longer distorted. She looked around for Ho-oh and Lugia, but the two birds were nowhere in sight. And the connection point was no longer visible. Laresa pressed the jewel on her object, but nothing happened. _Okay, so this thing doesn't work any more. Does that mean we're done here?_

Cain got to his feet. "Okay, what just happened?"

"Okay," Laresa said, "there's time now, I think. I'll finish explaining myself."

"Good."

"As I was saying, the degredation in our world manifests as the unnatural phenomena. If left alone, the distortive effect accumulates. There's not much moticable effect at first, but as it builds, you get the effect of unnatural phenomena. However, there is a meants to deal with this. That is the function of the Distortion World.

"The Distortion World exists in opposition to this world. What here are unnatural phenomena are normal in the Distortion World. This world's distortions are that world's normal state. As a result, the distortions in this world are... drawn, I guess is the best word, to the Distortion World. Sure, you still get an unnatural phenomenon every now and then, but that's it.

"I told you that the problem was that the seal was too strong, remember? That seal was blocking off the Distortion World. It cut off the outlet for the distortions, and as a result, they began to accumulate in this world."

"Hold on," Cain said. "If that's true, then why didn't anything happen until now?"

"There are several possibilities. One is that the seal wasn't in place until fairly recently. Or maybe it was originally meant to seal off only Giratina, and the distortions were still able to pass through until for some reason they no longer could. However, I think it's most likely that it simply took until now for the distortions to build up enough to have a noticable effect. I don't think we'll ever truly know, however."

"So you broke the seal to let the distortions pass? But, what, you replaced the seal after that?"

"I doubt it," Laresa said. "I didn't actually do much at all. It was Ho-oh and Lugia's show; I just activated the objects twice, once to break the seal and again after enough time had passed. The flow of distortions through the connection point was intense; it's likely that without intervention, the flow through wouldn't have stopped with the distortions. I'm not sure what would have happened in that case, but regardless, the flow couldn't just be left to stop on its own. It had to be cut off. That's what I activated the objects the second time for. Then it was all Ho-oh and Lugia. And while they did, obviously, stop the flow, I don't think they replaced the seal. After all, doing that would just mean the same thing would happen again at some point."

"Wait, but then what was the seal for?"

"Giratina, most likely. I don't know that it was ever necessary, though. Think about it. What reason could giratina possibly have for entering this world? It can't even exist here in its natural form. This world is everything it's not, and the Distortion World is everything it is. Why would it leave? No, my guess is that the seal was established unnecessarily, out of fear of Giratina. We'll never truly know, however."

"So now what?"

Laresa handed Cain his object. "Here, take this. I don't think it'll do anything any more, but this one's still yours. Do whatever you want with it." She put her own object in her pack. "We're done here, I think." She recalled her team, and Cain did the same with his.

"You know," Cain said, "if you thought, back in Canalave, that there was more to this, why didn't you say anything? You could've just told me you didn't think we had the whole story."

_Maybe I should have, but..._ "I wasn't thinking clearly. And don't ask what I mean by that. It's personal, and I don't want to talk about it."

"Um, okay. Well, come on," he said. "I don't know what I think about all that stuff, but it's done now, right? So let's get out of here."

* * *

_The two of them had done their job._

_It's not likely, I think, that they truly know what exactly it is they did. Cain certainly doesn't, I would say. A fairly uninteresting person, I think. He doesn't even know about me; I never showed myself to him the way I did with Laresa._

_Laresa is most certainly a more interesting individual. I have to say it's quite interesting that she was Ho-oh's choice. I have to wonder if it was truly coincidence, but I don't see how it could be anything but. Ho-oh couldn't know that Laresa and I had already met before. And Laresa doesn't know, either, does she?_

_Both Laresa and Cain, I'm sure, think that all this is over. They don't know what's really going on, after all, do they? And as far as Cain is concerned, it probably is over. I find it unlikely that he'll be involved in this anymore. Laresa, though, she may very well continue her involvement. I may very well encounter her again. She fights. I knew that from our first meeting; my battle with her at Iron Island only confirmed what I already knew. You fight, don't you, Laresa? Even when you shouldn't. And sometimes, because you fight back, you only worsten your situation. Sometimes, because you fight back, everything falls apart._


End file.
